Ag Plastics and Innovations - Ag Plastics Today

Ag Plastics Today

Strawberry bed with plastic mulch	Every Year in Ventura County California over 17,000 acres are covered in mulch film plastics, most of which are used in strawberry and pepper fields. Farmers use plastic to cover the beds in order to control weeds and to conserve water. All growers have to clean up and dispose of the plastic after each harvesting season. Most growers use machinery that will wind up the mulch film without cleaning it. Field workers are more expensive per acre compared to machines that wind it up. In both cases, the dirty mulch film adds extra weight and debris increasing the disposal cost up to as much as $100 per ton. In addition, farmers must pay rubbish companies to haul the plastic to the landfills. See article "Fields of Plastic" by Jack Gillooly.

Recycling companies will not accept plastic if it is covered in too much dirt, leaves or residue. Farmers face a huge challenge. Plastic would have to be cleaned in the field before any recycler would accept it. Today recyclers expect the plastic to be, at a minimum, 90% clean. Hiring crews to clean the plastic by hand is no longer a cost effective method in both time and money. Currently, there are still no incentives for growers to clean it. Most growers think that recyclers should be responsible for cleaning the plastic. Recyclers think growers should be responsible. At this juncture, there have not been any solutions until now! See Ventura County Star article "Farm plastic piles up as local recycling options shrink " By Allison Bruce.		Plastic mulch film being lifted from bed

Ag Plastics & Innovations have come up with answers to get past these obstacles! Today growers can be involved with a pilot program that will completely divert “pre-cleaned” mulch film waste away from the landfills! This will save growers money per acre in over-all clean-up costs. This green pilot program will help convert plastics into viable by-products such as synthetic diesel fuel and other green building products. Currently, Ag Plastics & Innovations have developed technology that brings agriculture and its plastics full force into new recycling technologies. Our machinery pre-cleans the plastic in the field leaving the dirt and debris where it originates. This pre-cleaning technology opens the door to the agricultural community to accept responsibility for landfill diversion thereby creating new by-product technologies.

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