Jason Koski/University Photography
On today's farms, plastic is as ubiquitous as dirt. From plastic film that wraps silage to leftover pesticide containers to the thin trays that hold seedlings, plastic plays an important role. But in the dark world of agricultural plastic afterlife, the primary destination has been either burning or landfill. Very little agricultural plastic has been recycled since it's cumbersome to handle, difficult to keep clean and has rarely met post-recycling market specifications, said Lois Levitan, director of Cornell's Recycling Agricultural Plastics Project (RAPP). But RAPP is changing the farmscape, she said, providing an efficient recycling infrastructure to help agricultural plastics get to post-recycling markets. Through RAPP, farmers throughout New York can bale the plastic and distribute it to new post-recycling markets. RAPP has developed and disseminated Best Management Guidelines for farmers on how to prepare their plastics for these recycling markets.
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