Cornell project collecting agricultural plastics

Some agricultural plastics, destined for burning or dumping in a landfill, have a market.

Staffers with Cornell University's Recycling Ag Plastics Project are spreading the word as they collect and compress plastics this week in Northern New York. They are once again using the BigFoot baler to compact bales of film plastic, each weighing about 1,000 pounds.

The baler also can compress rigid plastics. Field coordinator Blake L. Putman collected about 65 pesticide bottles, each 2.5 or 5 gallons, on Wednesday morning at Rudd's Farm & Country, Route 232.

That wasn't quite enough to bale, but they can be stored for baling in the future or possibly reused immediately.

"We'll hold onto them and have another collection," she said.

Some pesticide containers and medicine bottles can be cleaned and reused. Others that are in poor condition can be taken — baled or simply clean and organized — to Ultimate Recycled Plastics, Palmyra, where they will be turned into plastic timber. Horticultural plastics, irrigation tape and maple syrup tubing also can be recycled.

The only rigid plastics the project can't collect are those that contained formaldehyde or are made of polyvinyl chloride, or PVC.

Nate Leonard, president of New Agritech, Little York, attended the demonstration.

"In my business, I put barrels on farms, so I feel responsible to do something with them when they've been used," he said.

The demonstrations and collections are supported through a grant from the New York Farm Viability Institute. Staff from Cornell Cooperative Extension and county Soil and Water Conservation Districts also have helped organize the events.

At a time when the state Department of Environmental Conservation is expected to enact an open-burning ban, farmers are faced with a conundrum of what to do with used agricultural plastic. The options are to burn or bury it on the farm or to take it to a landfill, which involves hauling and tipping fees.

"Many people are coming together to try to make this problem not a problem anymore," Ms. Putman said.

The project, part of Cornell's Environmental Risk Analysis Program, is trying to create an infrastructure for collection, transportation and end use for both rigid and film plastics.

Project leader Lois C. Levitan said part of her work is locating local manufacturers and convincing them they could use agricultural plastics. These plastics have some dirt and debris, vary in colors and shouldn't be used for items people will handle regularly.

"We're working with them to become viable markets," she said.

And that's happened with rigid plastics. An end use for film plastics — silage bags, bunker covers and twine — is still a work in progress.

"Very exciting things are likely to develop in that area," she said.

The project also expects the money for a shared baler for the north country to come through soon. The money was included in the 2008 state Environmental Protection Fund allocations, but has not yet been disbursed. The project will be working with local agencies to figure out where the baler will be located and how plastics will be collected.

Mrs. Levitan said, "One of the major goals is to figure out how this will work and how it could be sustained if state funding ends."