Farmers seek solution to mounting plastic waste problem

Rows of black and white plastic weed mats line Jodi and Phill Brown's paddocks where tomato, chilli and capsicum seedlings are getting their best start in life.Hidden underneath, black trickle tape slowly delivers water and fertiliser directly to plant roots, while the blanket above prevents weeds and shields the soil from the north Queensland sun."We've had a lot of issues with trying to get rid of plastic, a lot of farms have got big piles, you can see them," Ms Brown says.At the end of the immaculate planting rows the refuse of seasons past is piled as high as Ms Brown is tall."Back in the day it all got picked up and taken out to the rifle range and used as a backing to shoot into," Mr Brown said."But they don't need it anymore, they've got enough," Ms Brown said. Plastic weed mat prevents weeds from taking over fruit and vegetable paddocks in north Queensland. (ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)Waste piles upAn essential tool for modern horticulture, farmers remove the plastic after harvest and roll it into bundles to be collected and dumped in landfill, which can cost thousands of dollars.Others looking to avoid the costs have illegally burned or buried it.At the Brown's Bowen farm, 200 kilometres south of Townsville, the loss of a reliable, affordable collection service has meant truckloads of used plastic are piling up.Phil Brown has been growing fruit and vegetable crops in Bowen for more than 20 years. (ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)"The businesses are so busy that you can't get anybody to dump it, so even if you could afford it, there's nobody who can transport it," Ms Brown said."We're just going to have to get rid of it in dribs and drabs, a truckload at a time."Agricultural waste consultant Anne-Maree Boland said the Brown's experience was not isolated. "We know that there's at least 100,000 tonnes of plastics per annum that are produced on farm and a large proportion, probably two thirds, is in the horticulture sector," she said."We have estimated about 7 per cent of the total amount that is recycled."Farmers lay trickle tape to irrigate and fertilise paddocks in the horticulture industry. (Supplied: RMCG)Ms Boland said the further farmers were from recycling infrastructure, the more expensive solutions became."If you're transporting [plastic] more than 300 kilometres, the costs start to outweigh the benefits," she said.Grazier Sandra Richards spent time searching for an option to recycle the plastic waste, first for her cattle and forestry operation at Richmond in the state's north west, and after selling the farm, for the broader agricultural industry. "I became interested in waste, which really led me to discover the very large problem that exists on farms," she said. "Particularly in north Queensland, which is so far away from any capital city, there's nothing."Sandra Richards is hoping to find suitable land to build an agricultural waste recycling plant in north Queensland. (Supplied)Ms Richards worked on a Townsville project hoping to turn recycled agricultural plastics and timber waste into composite products for use as railway sleepers and park benches.Despite showing promise, it never got off the ground.Mayor of the Whitsundays Ry Collins, who worked alongside growers in the Bowen Gumlu region before being elected, said even in one of Australia's key food bowls it was difficult to make the projects financially viable. "If it's a commercial business that's ultimately hoping to turn a profit, they need to show it can stack up fairly quickly and stand on its own two feet," he said.Cleaning the plastic is also a significant issue, one that can make or break a proposal. Farmers invested in technology that is now defunct after a previous recycling project fell through in Townsville. (ABC Tropical North: Aimee Mitchell)The Browns invested about $30,000 to make a special tool to sweep their plastic matting clean in preparation for a recycling program. "They said if you sweep it all properly and separate your plastic and your trickle tape, we'll take it," Mr Brown said.But the program failed to get government funding and collapsed. "That was frustrating," Mr Brown said.Searching for a solutionMs Richards is working with a family-owned Chinese recycling company to establish a new large-scale processing facility in Townsville."They've been over quite a number of times looking at availability of waste plastics, which is huge," she said.Robert Ho said his family chose to partner with Ms Richards because the project was close to both the farmers and Asia. Robert and Michael Ho are interested in establishing an agricultural waste recycling facility in north Queensland. (Supplied)"In the past, we didn't have this [recycling] technology," he said."People thought, 'We can just throw it away, we can just export it,' but it's not going away."If you export and you bury the rubbish, it's not going away from the earth."Their facility could wash and process about 20,000 tonnes of plastic collected directly from farms each year to be turned into agricultural products like produce bags.But after several years of planning, a suitable site with the right combination of power, water and proximity to the Townsville Port has not been found.The Queensland government last month released its Less Landfill, More Recycling 2035 strategy, which commits almost $1 billion over five years to improve recycling infrastructure across the state.However, it does not specifically address agricultural plastic recycling.Environment Minister Andrew Powell said there was a lack of investment in the farm plastics problem. "If there's an innovator out there, a company or a council that want to team up with farmers to come up with a solution, we're ready to work with them," he said.Ms Brown said she hoped a practical solution would arrive soon."It's a huge problem, we can't put it anywhere else, so it's just sitting there stockpiled," she said.