Accommodating the farmer’s schedule – a key component of pilots

This post discusses how Cleanfarms uses insights from pilot projects to align agricultural plastics recycling programs with seasonal farm routines, improving logistics, timing, and material quality. If this topic is of interest to you, we invite you to join our regional Ag Plastics Insight Loops to stay informed, share ideas, and help shape the future of agricultural plastics recycling in your area.

Just as farmers strive to produce high-quality crops or livestock, Cleanfarms aims to supply high-quality agricultural plastics to recyclers. This is why we emphasize that in preparation for recycling, agricultural plastics need to be clean and well-sorted. Ag plastics contaminated with large amounts of organic material or different types of plastic make processing more challenging and sometimes, impossible for our recyclers.

With 15 years of experience, we have found that to get the highest quality of ag plastics from farmers, we need to ensure that programming for pilots and permanent programs, accommodates the ‘rhythms of the farm,’ i.e., usage and disposal cycles, storage needs, and the time farmers have available for this type of work. We learn these patterns through pilots.

Let’s take bale wrap as an example. This particular ag plastic is removed from bales and accumulates in higher volumes on the farm over the winter-feeding season. However, farmers are often unable to transport used materials to collection sites during the winter because collection bags or bales freeze-up and can be difficult to move. Farmers need storage solutions (e.g., strong collection bags or compactors) that store the plastic so it stays intact over the winter and keeps material clean and sorted for delivery to a collection site in the spring (when farmers have time to clean up) or fall (when mixed farmers might have time after harvest). The usage and disposal pattern for bale wrap is very different from those associated with empty containers/jugs and/or grain bags.

Part of Cleanfarms’ role is to understand these patterns, ensure collection sites are well equipped to handle the materials when farmers are most likely to bring them and source contractors who will provide specialized services during specific times of the year, i.e., when collection sites have accumulated sufficient volume to ensure efficient collection and transportation.

We learn this through pilot programs that help inform the trajectory of future program development. Our ability to develop programs that accommodate farmer needs allows Cleanfarms to operate at the intersection of the agriculture and recycling industries, and to serve the agricultural community so well.

To stay informed and contribute the knowledge exchange and development of new agricultural plastics recycling programs in your area, we invite you to join our Ag Plastics Insight Loop in British Columbia, Ontario and the Maritimes! The Insight Loops are meant to inform on regional ag plastics developments, and bring together local knowledge and experience, helping to improve and grow agricultural plastics recycling programs across Canada.