Agricultural Plastic Waste Collection and
Recycling - Challenges and Opportunities

In agriculture (farms, stables, horticulture production), production processes
generates agriculture plastic (agro-plastic) waste, both packaging and nonpackaging plastics. Collection system terminals for corporate packaging plastic
waste have been organized by legalization in Finland. However, less attention has
been paid to the collection and recycling of non-packaging agro-plastic waste in
Finland and throughout Europe. 

Increasing interest in improving the recycling of plastics has awakened among
politicians and entrepreneurs. The European Commission’s plastics strategy was
launched in January 2018. The goal for Agriculture Plastic Environment Europe
(APE) is to increase the recycling of agro-plastic waste from the current 28% to
70% by 2022. In the spring of 2018, A Plastics Roadmap for Finland introduced the
national targets for more efficient recycling of agro-plastics as well. 

During the Soiled Plastic Waste Collecting and Recycling -project, it became
clear that farmers, stables owners and horticulture producers are interested and
motivated to recycle their plastic waste. They want to keep their backyard and
environment clean and tidy, and to avoid the problems with pests and pollution. In
addition, legislative changes and international standardization systems contribute
to the recycling motivation at farms and horticulture producers. 

Some of the main reasons for low recycling rate of agro-plastic waste has been the
lack of knowledge and guidance among farmers, horse owners and horticulture
producers. Until now they haven’t had the necessary information on the different
types of plastics, ways to sort agro-plastics or storage solutions. More instructions
on the sorting, storage and recycling systems of non-packaging agro-plastic
waste are required. Sorting at the source of agro-plastic waste is the first step for
obtaining the plastics for re-use.
Packaging plastic waste already have their own recycling system, but more
information is needed on these systems throughout the agro-plastic value chain. 

During the project, it became clear that very few importers, manufacturers, markets,
farmers or rural entrepreneurs knew about this system.
The challenges for transporting agro-plastic waste should be taken into account by
developing regional collection points and bi-annual collection schedules as well as
cost-effective pickup systems. The development of a regional collection solution,
such as LimuApp, in cooperation with different actors, could be one solution for
assisting recycling of agro-plastic waste. The development of the pickup services
should focus more on identifying the amount of waste to be collected and on the
certainty of pick-ups. 

The major challenges for recycling agro-plastics are the costs of collections and
recycling. For farmers, horse owners and horticulture producers who are struggling
with profitability problems, the current cost of the collection of non-packing agro-plastics waste is often too high in Finland. In addition, for the collection companies
costs of collecting agro-plastic waste is high, the demand for recycled raw material
is low and the price variations are high.
Long distances are a challenge for the collecting companies, as you should get
a full load of good and uniform plastic waste at one time. In addition, the plastic
material is expensive to transport as it takes up a lot of space relative to its weight.
The collection pilots of this project were practical. According to the feedback, the
collection of agro-plastic waste would ideally be organized twice a year, in spring
and autumn. 

 Agro-plastic waste can be processed by many methods and the properties of the
recycled plastic correspond to the properties of the virgin material. According
to the results of the project, agro-plastic waste can also be processed several
times without deteriorating its properties. Simple products can be made from reused agro-plastic waste by heat and compression, as the method allows for more
impurities.

Plastic is an excellent material for use in farms and fields. Among other things,
it reduces the use of pesticides, improves feed quality and reduces the need for
water. Silage films are the largest, homogeneous and the most recyclable fraction
of agro-plastic, which makes them the easiest to recycle. Recycling of the mulch
films is the most challenging approach for plastic recycling processes, because of
a large variety of plastic materials included. In addition, they are often rather dirty
(clayey), whereby they will require further processing. We in Finland, as well as
Europe as a whole, need more innovative ways to solve these challenges.
There are still too few processors and users of recycled plastic material in Finland
and in Europe.

 Undoubtedly, a rising general interest in recycling and material
efficiency will increase the investments in the recycling business both in the EU
and in Finland. So far, the virgin oil-based plastic is low-priced and homogeneous
in relation to the recycled plastic materials and thus the recycling business stays
undeveloped. To develop into a sustainable business, the whole agro-plastic
value chain requires more research, product development and closer cooperation
between different members of the value chain.