As a result of the new Agricultural Waste Regulations to be introduced in early 2006, 137,000 farms in England will have to find alternative means of disposing of non-natural waste.  There is currently no integrated system in place to assist farmers once the new legislation takes affect.

As part of its consultation paper on the new regulations, the Government also consulted on its proposal to introduce a Producer Responsibility scheme to deal with the management of non-packaging waste farm plastics.  This approach means that producers who place these plastics on the market would be financially responsible for the collection and recycling of at least a proportion of the resulting wastes.  Work has begun in Government to develop a Producer Responsibility scheme.

In order to help prepare the industry for the introduction of the new regulations, a national Agricultural Waste Stakeholders Forum (AWSF) has been established.  The Forum includes representatives from the National Farmer’s Union, Agricultural Industries Confederation, Crop Protection Association, Environmental Services Association, national and local Government and the Environment Agency.  The aims of the AWSF include the reduction of agricultural waste by the industry, increased recovery of wastes and the development of practical, integrated systems and infrastructure for the management of waste.

The AWSF has been successful with an application to Defra regarding the use of BREW Programme funds to support the investigation, development and promotion of a producer responsibility Farm Plastics Collection and Recovery Programme in England.  This will include working with Government’s advisory groups on the development of a system of Producer Responsibility for non-packaging farm plastics.

CIWM (EB), the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management Environmental Body, has been commissioned by the AWSF to manage delivery of the programme. 

May 2007

Three trial projects are in progress, looking at baling options and logistics in Somerset, reducing comtamination of farm plastic film waste in Lincolnshire and a farm hub bring scheme for small producers and farms in remote areas in Shropshire.  Running in parellel are four research projects to establish the quantity of agricultural waste plastic (AWP) is put on the market in the UK and the volume of waste plastic arisings, to establish the potential of pyrolysis as a potential recovery of AWP at various levels of recovery and to scope a data management system to deal with producer responsibility for non-packaging AWP.

A dedicated website is to go live during w/c 3-July under the registered domain of:
www.agwasteplastics.org.uk
Progress reports can be found on the programme website together with databases for current collectors and reprocessors.