More farmers and growers are catching the recycling bug.
Feeding containers being put in the Agrecovery mobile processing truck. Photo: AGRECOVERY
The Agrecovery scheme, which collects and recycles plastic chemical containers from farms and orchards, has had a record month.
Agrecovery marketing manager Duncan Scotland said it collected 30,000 kilos of plastic containers during May, the largest monthly volume since the programme began in 2007.
"I think we've only had a couple of months where we've surpassed 20,000 kilos and so in May to hit 30 was just exceptional," he said.
"We've been doing a lot of additional activities on farms, the large users. We've also held a number of collection events in areas which don't have a permanent Agrecovery collection site, so we're making the service more accessible to more farmers and growers right across the country."
Mr Scotland said the programme had also focused on Canterbury, where there had been a recent rule change preventing farmers from burning any plastic on farms.
"Compared with the previous year we've had a 70-percent increase. I think we have eight permanent collection sites around the Canterbury area and we've also held a number of direct collection events."
Duncan Scotland said about 10,000 farmers and growers are now signed up as participants in the recycling programme.
