Silage Plastics
Follow these three steps to ensure that your silage plastics are accepted and can be recycled:
- Shake — shake to get rid of any large debris (stones, hay, straw, mud).
- Place — place plastic in Cleanfarms’ collection bag*, once full, tie it up tightly.
- Return — return properly prepared materials to a collection site. Leave them where indicated.
For efficient collection, it is important that materials are properly prepared (sorting, cleaning, etc.) as only the clean and dry plastics sorted by category will be accepted. Each plastic category has its own recycler; it is important to not mix different types of plastic.
*Cleanfarms collection bags are offered for free at collection sites. Get in touch with your collection site before dropping off materials.
Compressing plastics on the farm, using a compactor.
Compressing plastics with a compactor allows farmers to better manage the materials. This approach has many advantages.
- More efficient recovery
- Improved preparation of plastic for the recycler
- The bales occupy less space
- Ease of handling
- Reduced number of trips to collection sites
Since there are different plastic categories, it’s essential to bale each type of plastic separately.
- Bale silage wrap separately
- Tarps and silage bags can be baled together
Three steps to follow:
- Shake — shake to get rid of large debris (stones, hay, straw, mud).
- Compact — compact bales (watch the video to the right).
- Return — return bales to collection site. Leave them at the spot indicated.
It is possible to build a homemade compactor out of wood. To get blueprints for the Pac-it model or any other information on compactors, please contact: info@cleanfarms.ca.
The following videos and pamphlets are only available in French.
Pamphlet: Compactor Models
What‘s In? What’s Out?
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FAQs
What actually happens to the products I return to Cleanfarms’ collection sites? Are they recycled?
We aim to reach ‘’zero ag plastics going to landfill.” The majority of the ag plastic materials coming into Cleanfarms’ collection sites is sent to recyclers in North America, sometimes very close to our collection sites. Once transformed into plastic pellets, the ag plastics are used to make new products. Some articles can’t be recycled in that manner, so they are sent for incineration at high temperature incinerators in North America. For more information, please visit our website: What Becomes What
How clean must these materials be?
They don’t have to be perfectly clean. However, we ask that you eliminate as much debris as reasonably feasible. Stones, mud, organic debris and other elements can damage the recycling equipment and destroy loads of plastic materials (in which case they go to landfills). If not sufficiently clean, the resulting plastic pellets are unfit to make new products. With your help, at the ’beginning of the process’, together we can ensure the successful recovery of these materials.
Do I have to pay when I take accepted materials to Cleanfarms’ collection sites?
No, you don’t have to pay. The manufacturers of the products finance the recycling process.
How do I prepare plastics on the farm?
For efficient collection, it is important to properly perform each step (sorting, cleaning, etc.) as only clean and dry plastics sorted by category will be accepted.
Actions that make a difference:
- Sort each plastic by category.
- Do not mix categories.
- Eliminate as much large debris as possible by shaking off the plastic.
Pamphlet: Silage Plastics
