Plastic nursery pots crushed by RAPP's 'BigFoot Baler"
Label on the side of RAPP's "BigFoot Baler"
Disposing of agricultural plastics is a big challenge for farmers and communities.
Ag Plastics
Large amounts of plastics are used these days to grow, process, and store agricultural crops. Most of it is discarded after one use. Very little is being recycled, in part because used agricultural plastics are often cumbersome to handle and rarely meet the specifications of plastics recycling markets. Few plastics processors are set up to handle them. Much of the used plastic has been burned in open fires, generating dioxins and other pollutants, or dumped in some out of the way place on-the-farm. Some plastic is buried in landfills, which wastes this valuable, energy-rich resource.
RAPP
The Recycling Agricultural Plastics Project (RAPP), based at Cornell University, is working to change this picture by developing infrastructure, protocols and markets to recycle these difficult materials. RAPP collaborates with agriculture producers and agricultural, environmental, economic development and solid waste/recycling agencies, organizations and businesses.
Since 2009, RAPP has coordinated the collection of more than one million pounds of used plastic that would otherwise go into landfills, be burned in open fires on-farms, or get left behind in the fields.
RAPP - Update for NYS Farmers - Visit the link to learn more and how to recycle agricultural plastics.
Learn more about RAPP by visiting their page on the Cornell Waste Management Institute website, at: http://www.recycleagplastics.css.cals.cornell.edu/.
Last updated August 2, 2019
NY Policy on Burning Agricultural Plastics
It is against the law to burn waste plastic in open fires on farms or elsewhere in New York State!
Plastics used in agriculture—e.g., horticultural mulch film, drip tape, dairy bunk silo covers, pesticide containers, packaging, etc.— may not be discarded by burning in barrels or open fires.
Farmers are still permitted to burn brush and other organic agricultural wastes if the material is generated on-site, can be fully burned within 24 hours, and if the fire is located on at least five acres of agricultural land.
But farmers may not burn construction debris, old fencing, packaging materials, or other trash.
Why?
Trash fires are the primary cause of wildfires. They generate harmful emissions: highly toxic dioxins and particulates that lodge in the lungs.
The “open burning” regulations protect health, the food supply, and air quality.