Baleage saga continues
Southland farmers are still being asked to stockpile baleage wrap while a recycling solution is found.
When New Zealand’s plastic recycling industry collapsed in July 2018, farmers were asked to hold on to their baleage wrap until a solution was found.
Southland disAbility Enterprises general manager Hamish McMurdo said they were getting close to finding a solution. The company is stockpiling about 250 tonnes of the baleage wrap, awaiting the markets to reopen.
The problem began with shipping ports not being able to keep up with the incoming containers after China closed its doors to many low-grade recyclable materials in February, McMurdo said.
It was a case of just waiting on that backlog to clear up and get processing again. ‘‘It’s just a way to slow down the containers usage at the ports. The ports, they don’t want to be seen as being ineffective.’’
Southland Federated farmers president Geoffrey Young said he believed farmers would be doing the right thing with their stockpiles. ‘‘I’ve seen some people have bailed it up and stored it. ‘‘The last thing people want is to see it blowing around.’’
Farm plastics recycler Plasback programme manager Chris Hartshorne said the recycling programme was ‘‘business as usual’’ for Southland and Otago. Plastics the company collected were recycled into farming products such as wall lining, flooring and decking. ‘‘It’s a difficult time in the recycling market but we are sticking to the plan to make sure farmers have a consistent service.’’ Hartshorne did not share the message from Southland disAbility Enterprises of stockpiling materials at farms until a solution was found. ‘‘That’s not the message we want to send to farmers at all.’’ Environment Southland compliance manager Simon Mapp said although the pollution team had received calls about fire pollution on rural properties, there was no way to tell whether farmers had been burning their plastic baleage wrap instead of stockpiling it. ‘‘We are continuing to send out educational material and remind people that burning of these items is prohibited under our Regional Air Plan rules.’’