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Since the New Jersey Department of Agriculture started a greenhouse film recycling program in 1997, growers have recycled nearly 8 million pounds of used film. During 2010, 725,980 pounds of film were recycled.
Both white and clear nursery film and clear multi-season (two-, three- and four-year) greenhouse film can be recycled.
Collection sites
Two regional sites, Burlington County Occupational Training Center in Mt. Holly and the Cumberland County Solid Waste Complex in Deerfield, accept film year-round. Out-of-state growers can take their used film to the Mt. Holly site, but the Cumberland site will only accept New Jersey growers’ film. The Cumberland site charges growers $20 per ton and the Burlington site charges $25 per ton.
In New Jersey the lowest landfill tipping fee is around $60 and can run as high $115. So disposing of the film at one of the recycling sites makes sense for New Jersey growers.
“It costs about 3 cents per pound to bale the plastic film,” said recycling program manager Karen Kritz. “That’s $60 per ton so the cost to the grower is considerably less. Also, the handling fees haven’t increased since the program was started 15 years ago.”
The Cumberland location collects 80-90 percent of the total film recycled by the state’s growers, she said.
Collection specifics
Discarded film must be free of lathing, staples and saran. Loads containing other agricultural plastics, such as bags, mulch film, shrink film, stretch film, drip irrigation or ground cover film are not accepted at the collection sites. Vehicles used to transport the greenhouse and nursery film intra or interstate are not required to be licensed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection as long as the used film is transported directly to a collection site.
The state’s Department of Agriculture also offers year-round drip irrigation tape recycling, seasonal plastic pesticide container recycling and information on nursery pots, plastic flats, trays and cell packs recycling.
For more: Karen Kritz, New Jersey Department of Agriculture, karen.kritz@ag.state.nj.us; www.nj.gov/agriculture/divisions/md/prog/recycling.html.
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