More than 77 million empty pesticide containers have been removed from the countryside since CropLife Canada launched its recycling program in 1989.
“It’s an incredible amount of containers we’ve taken out of rural Canada,” said Cam Davreux, CropLife’s vice-president of stewardship.
Farmers return an average of five million containers a year to 1,150 collection sites.
The association asks producers to remove the paper booklets and pressure wash or triple-rinse the jugs before delivering them to their local retailer or municipality.
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Five contractors collect the containers and deliver them to shredding facilities that turn the jugs into chips the size of a fingernail. The chips are bagged and shipped to a processor that further cleans them and in some cases extrudes them into pellets.
The processed plastic is sold to recycling firms that convert it into products that can be used on the farm, primarily field drainage tiles. However, it is also used to create fence posts, industrial garbage tubs and highway guardrail spacers.
CropLife usually generates $500,000 to $1 million a year from the sale of the plastic to offset a container collection program that costs $4.5 million.
However, the market for recycled products has collapsed in the wake of the global economic meltdown, so revenues are expected to fall.
Return rates are generally around 70 percent, making Canada a world leader in pesticide container recycling.
“We go above and beyond what is required of us by law because we are committed to safety and to ensuring the sustainability of Canadian agriculture,” Davreux said.
That leaves 30 percent of containers that are either dumped in landfills or burned on the farm.
The program is offered for containers of 23 litres or less, and most of them are of the 10 litre variety. However, large farm operations are increasingly buying bulk chemical in totes or drums.
CropLife’s member companies handle the recycling of those larger containers, which can either be rinsed and reused or shredded. If they are shredded, the association handles the sale of that plastic.
Farmers of North America runs a similar recycling program for members who buy ClearOut 41 Plus glyphosate. ClearOut is sold only in 114 litre drums or 946 litre totes, so there are no small jugs to collect.
FNA members are asked to remove labels and triple-rinse the containers before delivering them to one of about 80 collection sites, which are usually member farms. Containers will not be accepted if they have been used to store any other product.
Drums are taken to Curtis Construction Ltd. in Naicam, Sask., where the plastic is shredded. Totes that are in good condition are returned to Albaugh Inc., the U.S. manufacturer of ClearOut 41 Plus, for refilling or they are picked up by local companies that use them for a variety of purposes such as storing used oil.
