Be afraid
OPINION: Your old mate hears some of the recent uptick in farmer confidence has slipped since the political polls started…
After five years giving a new lease of life to vineyard posts, Marlborough-based company Repost is getting its own upcycle, in a joint venture with timber manufacturer OneForty One, which mills micronised copper azoleated (MCA) posts at its Kaituna Mill.
Having already hit the headlines for recycling broken 2.4 metre vineyard posts into 1.8 and 1.6 metre, half and quarter posts for agriculture, Repost recently hit the milestone of one million posts recycled, diverting the CCA treated posts from landfill.
A proposed recycling levy on commonly used polyethylene woven seed sacks and bags is likely to come into effect next year.
The two main plastic collection programmes in New Zealand's primary sector - Agrecovery and Plasback - have agreed to work together.
An on-farm plastic recycling initiative, Plasback, seems to be gaining momentum as the agricultural industry moves to reduce its environmental impact.
Having declared in July that all farm plastics sold in New Zealand will have to be recycled or reused, the Ministry for the Environment has made two major grants to help this policy become a reality.
Nationwide on-farm recycler Plasback has more than doubled the volume of waste plastic it collected this year.
A young Marlborough producer is encouraging government and the New Zealand wine industry to take ownership of their glass recycling, before they are forced to.
The squeeze on plastics should be a sobering warning to farmers and plastic wrap suppliers says the head of Plasback, New Zealand’s on farm recycler.