Rocky View County’s (RVC) annual Ag Recycling Round-up enjoyed another successful summer of keeping recyclable farm materials out of local landfills.
According to Christian Yee, RVC’s Solid Waste and Recycling Adviser, the eight round-up events held every weekend in July and August saw about 300 residents turn out to take advantage of these collections at more remote sites.
“We go to various locations in the county, particularly remote areas that are not near one of our transfer sites in Bragg Creek, Irricana and Langdon,” explained Christian. “We offer (to collect) hard-to-handle agricultural materials like grain bags, plastic twine, tires, wire, and some household hazardous waste materials such as oil, paint, and other recyclables like batteries and (cattle) lick tubs.”
Yee said by providing more accessible options for residents they are more likely to recycle rather than simply landfilling their materials.
The Ag Recycling Round-up has been funded the past three years by grants from Clean Farms, which is the oversight body for agricultural materials in Alberta, as part of a three-year government of Alberta pilot project that started in 2019.
Yee said that pilot project was recently extended one more year until 2023. It compensates the County at a rate of $55 per metric tonne for farm plastics collected at the recycling round-ups, and through RVC’s three transfer sites all year-round.
This funding helps offset the cost of the collection and shipping of these materials to a special recycling facility in Bashaw, Alta., run by PolyAg Recycling Ltd. According to Yee, since 2019, RVC has collected over 250 tonnes of ag plastics, and kept them out of local landfills.
“That program is important to encourage the recycling of these materials at the end of life of the grain bags and the twine to make sure we’re creating a circular economy and reusing those materials,” Yee stated. “Otherwise, it’s likely those materials will just end up in landfills, which is something we don’t want.”
While the program has been successful, Yee said there will be one major change to RVC’s ag materials collection at the round-ups and at its transfer sites in 2023: it will no longer accept empty ag pesticide or fertilizer containers.
Clean Farms will be launching a new program next year, in which these types of containers will have to be returned to point of purchase for recycling.
“The reasoning for this is that Clean Farms is transitioning the collection of pesticide containers from municipal sites to retailers,” confirmed Yee.
