A newly announced provincial government-funded program will focus on recycling agricultural plastics for the whole province.
The Alberta Agricultural Plastics Recycling Program is being developed by the Agricultural Plastics Recycling Group, which consists of 20 stakeholder organizations ranging from commodity associations and rural municipalities to retailers. The three-year Alberta-wide pilot program is being funded by the Alberta Beef Producers using a $750,000 grant.
Mountain View County councillor Al Kemmere, who is the president of the Rural Municipalities of Alberta and also chair of the Agricultural Plastics Recycling Group, said the program is welcome news.
"The key is that it is a three-year pilot program and the whole role of the pilot is going to be to get a good sense as to what is out there as far as types of plastics and the plastics on the landscape; both on the farms and those that have been collected by the municipalities already," said Kemmere.
"And then try and figure out a mechanism and test a mechanism for the logistics moving that plastic to an end use of some sort. That's more or less what it is: to pilot with municipalities, and the various agencies that handle it, to see what we can do to find a way to get the plastic to another end use, and get a good understanding of what the cost would be to do that."
The pilot program is aimed at recycling grain bags and twine and researching markets for other agricultural plastics not included in the pilot program. A waste characterization study will also be conducted to determine agricultural plastic volumes. Producers will be surveyed to get feedback and be educated on the program and how to recycle their plastics.
Kemmere said one of the first steps is to hire a company to help implement the program.
"As a committee we have to build a bit more of an operational document and then hire a company that will do the work for us because all of us are doing this along with our other jobs," he said. "This project is going to take enough effort that we will actually hire someone to manage it and work with the various groups involved in it whether it's municipalities or waste commissions or the agricultural sector or the retailers, whoever is involved, to try and deliver on the framework in the pilot."
Kemmere said he expects it will take until summer before they begin the pilot program.
"Everything has to go through due process," he said. "It's a positive thing that the province has done to show some faith in the program. We appreciate that the province is sticking with it to find a solution."
Kemmere, Mountain View County's councillor for Division 7, said that the county has been a leader in the agricultural plastics recycling field.
"But we're only one area so this is to get a good Alberta-wide perspective on it," he said. "It's a three-year pilot -- with three years' worth of information we'll have information for the government of the day to look back and figure out how to put a program together. Saskatchewan has a program right now and Manitoba is piloting something, so it's only right we try to come up with an Alberta-made solution and see what we can deliver."
Kemmere said the county's Farm Plastic Recycling program pays farmers to bring in plastic.
"Over the years we've had various programs where we've incentivized the farmers to bring it in," he said. "We've paid them to bring in their plastic; the county has paid for that. Now our Ag Services Board is looking at a different model. I don't sit on that board so I won't talk for them but the whole intent is to take the learning that has been there and add new learnings to it, build the understanding based on today's common numbers and expenses and put together a model or a database for the province for them to decide how they want to handle it."
Kemmere said it's important to realize that there are local initiatives taking place, "but this is taking that and making it Alberta-wide so the people in Northern Alberta have the same chance to recycle as those in Central Alberta. Same with those in Southern Alberta. So everyone has their opportunities.
"It's a big province; we need to come up with an Alberta-made solution."
Kemmere gives a lot of credit to the agricultural producers for taking an active role in recycling.
"They've been on our committee for the last three years," he said. "The agricultural operators are saying that they don't want to have burning or burying as the only solution for ag plastics. They know it's important that we find a reuse. So agriculture has been very involved with this and will be in the future. I tip my hat to the farmers that a solution must come forward, and they want to be a part of that solution."
