The Mountain View County agricultural service board has received and reviewed the results of a recent survey regarding agricultural plastics recycling.
The update came during the board’s recent regularly scheduled meeting in council chambers.
The survey saw responses from producers who have in the past participated in the county’s agricultural plastics recycling program. It included both questions for respondents and the opportunity for those respondents to provide additional comments.
One question asked respondents what type of agricultural plastics they use in their respective operations, from most to least common: twine round, twine large square, twine small square, grain bags, net wrap, silage bags, silage wrap, silage tarp, hay tarps and totes.
Asked why they took part in ag plastics recycling, the responses included free disposal, cash incentive, reduce on-farm burning, preferred recycling over disposal/burn, and environmental responsibility.
Respondents said the most ag plastic waste was generated in January to March (42 per cent) and October to December (33 per cent).
Asked how they cleaned their ag plastics before recycling, responses included “set up collection of ag plastics in shop and clean twine daily”, “bundle and tie up when done with it”, “hose it off and let it dry” and “when removing, pull off individual strings and clean as pull off.”
Asked how they collect ag plastics for easy handling, comments included “collect in barrel under roof”, “collect in tractor then bag in shop”, “keep bags in barn”, “put twine in bags right away” and “tie bundles and squish with grapple fork.”
Asked for advice for farmers considering recycling ag plastics, responses include “get set up to recycle and stay on top of it”, "have a recycling spot set up and use bags”, “important to do it right away since it takes some time”, “need to get in a routine”, “need to guilt people into recycling for environmental reasons” and “need to understand the importance of plastic being clean or it can’t be recycled.”
Asked for suggestions for ag plastic recycling programs, responses included “prefer more flexibility in dropping off the plastics or don’t think people will do it”, “really need to find a home for net wrap” and “there is a balance of how much time someone is willing to spend on getting plastics clean.”
The board accepted the survey results report as information.
Meanwhile, the board passed a motion recommending that Mountain View County council continue with the registration sponsorship for a young farmer (35 or younger) from the county to attend the annual FarmTech conference, next scheduled for January 2020 in Edmonton.
No applications were received for the sponsorship in 2019.
