Arthur Amidon
Amidon Recycling
125 Burns Hill Road, Wilton, NH  03086-5113

Keywords: Connecticut, nursery film, recycle, Tiger Baler, waste management.

 Abstract: Both waste management and recycling of agricultural plastics continue to evolve. This discussion session will review developments in Connecticut’s unfolding collection and recycling program for agplastics. Overwintering, greenhouse and tobacco mulch films will be collected and baled to reduce costs and increase their recyclability. Collection will be with Tiger Balers, modified for the removal and baling of overwintering and greenhouse films directly from the houses. This direct baling drastically reduces the cost of removal, the cost of baling, and the cost of transportation of the film to disposal or market.

Additionally, because of the low contamination of the collected overwintering films, there should be demand for the bales that are of high quality. Some of the lower quality, more highly contaminated, films may need to be disposed rather than recycled, but the saving in removal and baling labor will provide ample benefits to justify the equipment purchases.

The original idea was to create a cooperative of nursery growers, greenhouse growers, and dairy farmers who could own three or more balers. The three million pounds of clean overwintering fall poly used in Connecticut yearly provides the foundation of the program. The Tiger Balers will handle overwintering removal in the early springtime, then other agplastics at other times of the year.

There is no full paper associated with this abstract.