As Earth Day approaches: Local solution found for dealing with ag plastic waste

by Kelli Boylen
freelance writer

For as long as there has been silage bags, bunker silos and net wrap, dairy farmers have wondered what to do with ag plastics once they have served their purpose. Many farmers have been burning, burying or landfilling this plastic. There are negative environmental and economical impacts with each of these options.
Now, thanks to an innovative idea, the know-how to make it happen, and the hard work of the Little Switzerland FFA Chapter at Waukon High School, there is a viable option.
Terrecon, Inc. out of Fountain Valley, CA has found a way to efficiently use the ag plastics material in the manufacturing of plastic sidewalk pavers. As long as the company can continue to get this material for free, they are willing to pay for the trucking to pick it up.
The company is working with FFA Chapters in northeast Iowa to set up collection points and times. Sam Schwartz, a junior at Waukon High School and treasurer of the Little Switzerland FFA Chapter, is the coordinator for the local program.
Schwartz explained that farmers are asked to shake off the bigger pieces to remove as much dirt, rocks and frozen materials as possible and then put the ag plastic into a “super sack” provided by the FFA Chapter. The sacks themselves are also recycled material, and were used to ship raw materials and feed additives to processing facilities. They measure about three free by three feet and are about five feet high. When packed tightly with plastic they can hold 400 to 600 pounds.
Farmers are asked to keep different types of plastic in their own super sacks, including all white plastic silage bags or bale wrap (not netting), white and black silage bags, and plastic bale twine and bale netting (mesh).
Whenever a bag is full, Schwartz said, farmers are asked to call him or the FFA Chapter, and they keep tally on the number of full super sacks. Once they have at least 50 bags filled and ready to go on area farms (that is the minimum number of full bags that makes transporting them feasible), FFA members will contact farmers and ask them to bring them to a designated location on a designated date.
There is no cost for the farmers; the only expectations for them are that they will shake the plastic so there is not a large amount of dirt or gravel on it, store it in a dry area on the farm until collection day, and bring it to the collection point when asked. Up to four of the super sacks stuffed full should fit in the back of a standard pick-up truck.
Schwartz and Little Switzerland FFA Advisor Jessica O’Connor say that farmers don’t need to necessarily live in the Allamakee Community School District to use the Little Switzerland FFA Chapter’s program; they only need to be willing to bring in their ag plastics to the pick-up site in Waukon on the designated day.
Lindsay Smith, CEO and founder of TERRECON, Inc, says her company started producing rubber sidewalks in 2007, but some of their customers wanted features that material could not provide. In 2010 they started experimenting in order to make some type of paver out of plastic. After trying many alternatives, they discovered that ag plastics were the perfect material for them to use.
Due to the dirty nature of ag plastics, there have not been many successful markets for the material. The material is often muddy and sometimes smelly. Most recycling markets pay more for clean material. The more cleaning they have to do to shred, grind, melt and form product, the less valuable the plastic is. But Smith does not agree.
Ag plastics already have UV additives to prevent sunlight from breaking them down, and small amounts of dirt left on the plastic actually add to the concrete-appearance of the sidewalks.
It turns out to be a winning situation for all: The farmers have an easy way to dispose of the plastic at no cost; TERRAWALKS receives the material they need to make the pavers; there are no materials in the landfills or smoke in the air to dispose of the plastic; and the FFA Chapter has the opportunity for hands-on experience managing a local rural recycling program while building skills in organization, marketing and communication. The project also helps the students gain an understanding in logistics, economics and the recycling industry.
The FFA Chapter at Waukon High School, which consists of about 104 members, is part of the nationwide infrastructure Smith and her company is developing. Smith says the company’s ultimate goal is to have the demand for the sidewalks and other products made from ag plastic be so high that they could use all the ag plastics from all the farms in the U.S. willing to gather it.
John Palmer, who dairy farms near Waukon, estimates that in an average year his 100-cow dairy uses about four to six tons of ag plastic. He has been bundling up his plastics on his farm and transporting it to Prairie du Chien, WI, where he has been paying to dispose of it.
He had contacted Organic Valley, which is where he sells his milk, to ask them about other options (part of the requirement for certified organic farms is that they have to have a plan in place to deal with ag plastics that does not involved burning it). Organic Valley pointed him in the direction of Ben Kvinge of the Iowa Northland Regional Council of Governments (INRCOG) and he contacted the FFA chapter in Waukon to get set up as a collection site.
Kvinge says the response so far from farmers has been very positive, and they are very glad to now have an option on how to deal with ag plastics. He is optimistic that the opportunity for ag plastics to be recycled into other products will continue to grow. Palmer is now happily collecting his ag plastics and storing them until the designated day they can be taken to town.
Smith said the sidewalk product that they manufacture from the ag plastics is a very comparable cost to concrete, but the pavers they make can be lifted out when tree roots start to make the sidewalk buckle, the roots trimmed and the paver placed back down. Smith says there is an “epidemic” of broken sidewalks across the nation and that the TERRAWALK pavers could prevent that problem. Currently, TERRAWALK sells its products to municipalities and contractors, but they may have products in the future for the average homeowner as well.
The ag plastics collected are hauled to a Midwest processing facilities and eventually trucked to a place in the southwest United States in a cleaner and more condensed form.
Schwartz did not grow up on a dairy farm, but he has helped out and worked on the dairy farm of his neighbor, Pat Reisinger, since he was about eight years old. When asked why he is willing to take the time and be the coordinator of the program in the Waukon area, he explained that because of his experiences on dairies he understands farmers’ needs to have a good option for dealing with the plastics.
To obtain a super sack to start filling with ag plastics, contact Sam Schwartz at 563-794-0534 or Jessica O’Connor at 563-568-3409, ext. 2573.
To learn more, go to waukonffaagplastics.weebly.com and to learn more about the company that uses the ag plastics in its products go to http://terrecon.com/.