Baler Could Aid Farms in Recycling

August 11, 2006. The Ithaca Journal. Page 1B.

By Jennie Daley, Journal Staff

LANSING - Marilee Williams can smell it each time the large farm down the road from her burns their plastics. The hope of finding an alternative for the plastics in her own small farming operation outside of Skaneateles lured her to Lansing's Bakers Acres Thursday morning.

Over about 45 minutes, she and a group of other interested members of the agriculture community watched as the Big Foot Baler turned a pile of plastic big enough to fill an above-ground pool into a compact bale 40-inches around, 36-inches tall and between 1,200 to 1,500 pounds.

While smushing plastic isn't all that exciting in and of itself, because such crunching takes agricultural plastics one step closer to being recycler-ready, many are hailing this invention as an important step toward getting agricultural plastics out of burn barrels and the waste stream.

"This is really very exciting. This answers the question, how do you conglomerate stuff and get it from point A to point B, which is really one of the big pieces of the puzzle," said Lois Levitan, communications director for Cornell University's Environmental Risk Analysis program.

Levitan has been working with others for three to four years to address the predicament presented by the disposal of plastics used in agricultural operations. These include feed bags, irrigation drip tape, greenhouse and hoop covers, fumigation films, tarps, plastic films used to wrap silage and hay and numerous other uses.

Dennis Sutton, creator of the Big Foot Baler, estimates that an average farm generates 1,000 to 3,000 pounds of plastic per year.

Under the current system, there aren't a lot of choices for farmers looking to get rid of that plastic. The two most common methods are either sending it out with the trash, where it accumulates in landfills, or burning it.

Many farmers choose burning over hauling because it's more affordable, an important consideration in an often cash-strapped industry.

Recently the issue of burning farm plastics has been much discussed, due in large part to a ban Tompkins County passed on open burning in June of last year. A notable exception was made for agricultural waste.

Despite evidence that burning of such plastics releases dioxin, a known carcinogen, into the air, it was determined that, because farmers have so few options for discarding the plastics, banning them from burning the plastics would place an undue burden on them to find an alternative disposal method.

Sutton and Levitan are hoping to change all that.

Sutton developed the Big Foot baler after spending more than 20 years on the sales side of the agricultural plastic industry.

[Photo credit: Simon Wheeler, Ithaca Journal]

Raised on a tobacco farm and now living in central Florida, Sutton estimates he's filled a couple landfills with the plastic he's sold over the decades.

"Now toward the end of my career, I'd like to be on the other end of the equation," he said, in his warm Southern drawl.

To that end, he spent time tinkering with the tobacco balers he knew in his youth.

After modifying it to handle a heavier load, he finally had something that could take piles of plastic and turn it into a size and shape that is easy for recyclers to use.

Now the issue is finding those recyclers. Since farm plastics are often dirtied by soil, silage or other debris, they're not the most appealing for recyclers who must clean them before being able to use them. There are a few isolated operations that will accept them, but so far the economic equation is not yet in favor of recycling.

Yet, as the price of petroleum - the base product for plastics - continues to rise, Sutton said he sees the equation begin to tip the other way.

"We really need a ruckus from the farm community," Levitan said. ""We need them saying 'We won't buy this plastic unless you take it back."

In the meantime, Levitan is working with others in upstate New York to purchase the baler that has been on demonstration this week.

"There has been unbelievable enthusiasm about this," she said.

Copyright (c) The Ithaca Journal. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.

Project Targets Ag Plastic Recycling

Ag Plastics Baling Demonstration at Empire Farm Days

August 8-10, 2006. Finger Lakes Times (Empire Farm Days Insert), Geneva, NY.

By Chris Marquart (cmarquart@fltimes.com)

SENECA FALLS - You know those round marshmallow-looking bales of hay that dot farm fields each fall? Well, until recently, the plastic casing that holds them together, allowing fermentation and easier digestion, hasn't had much of a future once it's been removed.

But, now, if farmers choose to invest in the equipment, they can see that the plastic gets recycled for various uses.

Just how will be demonstrated this week at Empire Farm Days.

Cornell University's Lois Levitan acknowledges that "Silage bags, wraps and tubes, and the covers in greenhouses and nurseries all do a nice job," but she asks "what do you do afterward?"

To answer that question, she has helped organize a seminar on ag plastics and their future. The demonstrations and talks will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday at booth No. 129.

There, Dennis Sutton will showcase his ag-plastic baler.

[Photo credit: Levitan]

"This is a great place to bring our target audience together," Levitan said. "Farmers might see a piece of equipment like this and use it to get the plastics off their fields. They can get the bales onto a tractor-trailer and bring it where it will be chopped up, cleaned and used to make new products."

There's also the aethestics to consider.

Agri-tourism is as much about enjoying the scenic view as you drive along as it is about the food itself, so dirty plastics need to be dealt with. They're an eye-sore and a breeding ground for mosquitoes, which can carry West Nile Virus. Currently, the plastics are burned or dumped in landfills.

"In New York, there is no legislation to prohibit open burning or dumping," Levitan said. Naturally, the push is to recycle the products, but the thin plastic is hard to shred, and the raw materials come to recyclers dirty. Cleaning the wraps isn't cost-effective, and using the dirty materials in recycled products hasn't been feasible.

"Supermarkets will take plastic bags, but ag plastics are dirty, so you can't use them like a shopping bag. You have to be more clever to use the dirtier material," Levitan said.

Enter Donald Reeners, of Ultimate Recycled Plastics.

He has begun turning nursery refuse into nailer boards that can be used when building concrete and extruded aluminum beam buildings - such as office buildings and sport stadiums.

"HeÕs taking a grungy product and making it useable in a grungy application," Levitan laughed.

The plastic beam is inserted in a channel in the aluminum beam and used to anchor a plywood form. Concrete is then poured into the plywood form. Once the concrete sets, the wood is removed.

"This used to be a job for pressure-treated lumber, and they would last one or two years," Reeners said. "These plastic beams can be used over and over."

Reneers' complex in Port Gibson can take an 1,800-pound bale of plastics - nursery pots, detergent bottles, milk jugs, even electric lines - and grind them into a fine powder. The powder is forced into a mold, a la Play-Doh, and then cooled to make the boards.

"We recycle what is being landfilled. We take what everyone else doesn't use, and make a product out of it," he said.

At present, the technology hasn't advanced quite far enough for Reeners to handle round bale wraps and thinner plastics; but the answers are not far off.

Farmers on the whole have been slow to embrace the process. Reeners said they're looking to be paid for their plastics, which isn't going to happen at this point. "The critical point is that farmers have to realize everyone else is recycling for free. They put their stuff out on the curb and it is taken away," Reeners said. "The farmers need to realize that part, and try to look at the big picture." The other obstacle is general knowledge. Even if a producer is familiar with the concept of ag-plastic recycling, it is hard to say that they know how to bale their plastics for recycling, or how to make them clean and appealing.

"We are willing to take products to the next stage and show what plastics are worth more," Levitan said. "At Farm Days, we are hoping to push the network and build an infrastructure. If we work together so the plastics we collect can be made into other products here in upstate, that will help everyone in our region, both on and off the farm."

Used Silo Bags: What To Do With Them

June 2006. Hoard's Dairyman: The National Dairy Farm Magazine. page 426.

By Tina Wright

Lois Levitan is not a dairy farmer, but she is trying to address one of our biggest environmental messes, the disposal of agricultural plastic film used for silo bags and wrappings. In some states, we burn tons of this plastic in the open air: the plastic that we use to cover bunker silos, wrap bales and that we stuff with silage in long tubes.

Levitan, a Cornell researcher, heads the Environmental Risk Analysis Program and pulls no punches describing the nasty smoke produced when we burn these plastics. Highly toxic and carcinogenic dioxins, as well as heavy particulates, are released in the air for farm families, workers, animals, and neighbors to breathe. ...

Cornell Scientist Works on Recycling Options to Stop Farm Plastics from Polluting Air, Water and Food

Plant Specializes in Recycling Ag Plastics

Published online Thursday, April 21, 2005 in the Capital Press Agriculture Weekly
PO Box 2048 Salem, OR 97308 * 1-800-882-6789

By Jo McIntyre, Freelance Writer

Agri-Plas has just closed its former facility on Chemawa Road in Keizer, Ore., and moved into a new larger plant in nearby Brooks. Already co-founder Dari Jongsma is planning bigger things.

We have 40,000 square feet under one roof and will be doubling that, she said. We expect this factory to do about 25 million pounds this year.

The company recycles used agricultural plastic products in Oregon, including baling twine, trays, pots and film from Oregon nurseries. Some of the larger nurseries deliver to the plant. Others pay to have Agri-Plas come pick up the plastic waste.

Groups Working to Recycle Plastic Used by Farmers

Published January 8, 2005 in the Daily Star: The Newspaper for the Heartland of New York
102 Chestnut Street, Oneonta, NY 13820 - (800) 721-1000

By Mark Boshnack
Tri-Towns Bureau

A group of organizations and agencies is moving forward on finding a way to dispose of agricultural plastic without damaging the environment.

The plastic film that is used in place of silos or barns for storing hay or silage currently is mostly disposed of by burning or burying, officials said. Most farmers find it too expensive to dispose of it in landfills, officials said.

But an Otsego County-based group is looking to start a pilot program to collect the plastic and recycle it.

The Agricultural Plastics Feasibility Study Group has been meeting since August with the goal of developing a program to recycle the plastic film used by farmers and in greenhouses.

Members of the group, which includes representatives from Cornell Cooperative Extension of Otsego County, Otsego County Conservation Agency and Otsego Solid Waste Department, have been given a report prepared by Lois Levitan, program leader with the environmental risk analysis program at Cornell University.

According to the 82-page report, about 200,000 pounds of plastic film is used on the farms within a 30-mile radius of Oneonta. This could produce about five truckloads of film a year. One truckload is the minimum to interest reprocessors, the report said.

A comparison of expenses and income for a possible plan show a "very tight" balance sheet, the report said, and some public support is necessary in the early stages.

OCCA Executive Director Teresa Winchester said Wednesday that the group is preparing to apply for a grant in the next couple of months to help with the project.

Possible funding could come with the help of local legislators, Empire State Development and the state Energy Research and Development Agency and Department of Environmental Conservation.

When the agricultural plastic problem was looked at 10 years ago, recyclers were not interested because the film often became dirty before it was delivered, said Martha Clarvoe, special projects manager with OCCA.

The current group met on the dairy farm of Jim Mumford of Mount Vision in December to see firsthand a method of keeping the plastic clean.

David Cox, agriculture development specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Otsego County, said at the time the visit was important because most members are not farmers, and "you have to see how to make this work."

Mumford cuts off the plastic daily and stores it for processing. "It's a little more work daily, but it pays off in the long run," he said.

To see how the process will work on a larger scale, Clarvoe received a donation of 20 large collection bags to distribute to Mumford and other interested farmers to use for storing the film. Sites are being considered in Oneonta and Richfield Springs for collection.

If the bags work, she said, it would be a lot cheaper then distributing garbage bins.

The ultimate goal of the program, Otsego County Solid Waste Coordinator Terry Bliss said, is to put the plastic in the hands of remanufacturers, who could use the material for products such as plastic logs.

For more information on the project or to participate, call Cox at 547-4303.

Plastics recycling - a new departure.

Good News India. Online. Undated. Accessed Jan 05.

In Rural Areas, the Heat Is on Over Practice of Trash Burning

Published March 7, 2005 in the The New York Times

By Lisa W. Foderaro

TOWN OF CHESTER, N.Y. - On a recent Adirondack morning, the air so dry and cold it seemed to crackle, Luther Grimes stepped outside his mobile home, trudged through the snow and dropped a match into a rusty barrel filled with trash - paper plates, printer paper, a frozen-corn wrapper, cardboard, crumpled tissue.

Mr. Grimes, 83, was engaged in a rite of country life: In New York State, if you live in a town with fewer than 20,000 residents, you can burn your trash, and many people do. Though unheard of in the suburbs, the practice of backyard burning is routine for tens of thousands of upstate New Yorkers who torch their waste in burn barrels to avoid paying a $1- or $2-a-bag fee for disposal.

"It would be a hardship for us if we couldn't," said Gretta Grimes, 82, whose husband burns whatever remains after the couple removes glass, metal and other recyclables.

But with the growing body of research about the dangers of burn barrels - namely the dioxins and other pollutants they give off - has come a movement to ban their use in New York. Maine and New Hampshire have outlawed the practice of trash burning within the past few years, as did California. Other states, including New Jersey, Connecticut and Vermont, instituted bans long ago.

"A lot of people think that burning trash is their right, and they don't understand the potential health implications for them and their children and their neighbors," said Ellen Z. Harrison, director of the Waste Management Institute at Cornell University.

According to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, dioxins, a group of highly toxic chemicals, are produced when waste of any type is burned. After years of technological improvements to large municipal waste incinerators and other industrial plants, backyard burning is now the "largest quantified source of dioxin emissions" in the nation, the agency has said.

Burn barrels, with their low temperatures and lack of controls, are far more polluting than large incinerators. One federal study found that a few dozen burn barrels could produce the same amount of dioxins and related compounds as a 200-ton-a-day modern incinerator serving tens of thousands of households.

And the potential hazards of those pollutants can travel far beyond mountain hamlets and farm communities. Dioxins, which can cause cancer and disrupt reproduction and development, penetrate the food chain by settling on the plants that meat and dairy animals eat.

But in New York, where a bill to ban backyard burning has languished in the Legislature for several years, resistance to any government interference is fierce. The strongest opposition to a ban has come from the New York Farm Bureau, which cites costs. The bill would exempt leaves, branches and crop waste - even burlap bags. But it would spell an end to the practice on farms of burning the large plastic wraps that cover hay bales.

"We don't feel there are any viable economic alternatives for disposing of trash, and open burning is an option that we want to make sure stays available," said Peter Gregg, a spokesman for the Farm Bureau, which has 35,000 members.

Farmers are not the only ones concerned about the consequences of a potential ban.

Most rural communities do not offer curbside garbage collection the way suburbs and cities do, and many residents say they cannot afford the fees at garbage transfer stations.

"Incomes in the Adirondacks are 25 percent less than the rest of the state," said Fred H. Monroe, supervisor of Chester, 55 miles north of Albany. "In our town we charge $1 for a small bag and $2 for a larger one. People feel it's one way they can save money - if they can just burn it."

Mr. Gregg, whose group represents the dairy industry, dismissed concerns about pollution. "All the burn barrels in the state wouldn't equal the amount of pollution emitted from the average traffic jam on the Tappan Zee Bridge," he said.

But environmentalists argue that farms are the worst possible location for open burning. "It runs counter to common sense to have a large generator of toxicity near your food source," said David Higby, a project director for Environmental Advocates of New York, a nonprofit group.

The E.P.A. says that people are exposed to dioxins mainly through the foods they eat. "These are fat-loving chemicals," said William H. Farland, acting deputy assistant administrator for science in the agency's Office of Research and Development. "They like to move into fat in various species, and they move up through the food chain."

But Dr. Farland cautioned that there was continuing debate over the degree of health risks from dioxins in foods. Federal studies have found extremely low levels of dioxins in milk, he said.

In New York, the longstanding law relating to backyard burning bars the practice in cities and villages, but allows it in towns with fewer than 20,000 residents, unless a town or county ban is in place. The law separates trash into categories, and the main thing that cannot be burned is "garbage," which is defined as animal and vegetable waste resulting from food preparation.

But "rubbish" can be burned, and that includes a wide range of materials: paper, plastics, cans, cartons, crockery, rags, yard waste, furniture, chemicals, paint, grease, sludge, oil, wood, tires and car parts.

Some people who burn rubbish, like Mr. and Mrs. Grimes, say they are not harming the environment because they include only paper products. But Dr. Farland said all waste materials, including paper, released dioxins when burned in open containers.

Only a handful of the state's 62 counties have passed their own bans, and those are not always strictly enforced, county and local officials say.

In some areas, officials are reluctant to pass their own bans for fear of the political fallout. "Clearly many municipalities wish the state would take action because they don't want to take heat from their constituents," said Ms. Harrison of Cornell's Waste Management Institute.

In St. Lawrence County, in the state's far north, legislators considered a countywide ban in 2002. But the measure was defeated after much debate in the sparsely populated county, where only a handful of transfer stations serve 111,000 people across nearly 2,700 square miles. Instead, the county committed $33,000 to a public awareness campaign, with billboards, newspaper and radio ads and school presentations on the dangers of burning trash.

No one seems to know exactly how many households rely on burn barrels. But a 2003 survey by St. Lawrence County showed widespread use, with an estimated 10,000 burn barrels, representing 48 percent of households.

"It's an indicator," said Jon R. Montan Jr., a planner for St. Lawrence County. "Not all are being used, but they're there and could be used. And those are just the ones we could see driving by."

The state's Department of Environmental Conservation urges residents not to burn trash and supports a state ban. Last fall, the agency signed a joint resolution denouncing the practice, along with seven other states in the Northeast, most of which have bans.

But for the past several years, the bill to outlaw backyard burning has stalled in the State Legislature. The Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats, has passed it overwhelmingly. But the same bill has never emerged from committee for a vote by the Republican-controlled Senate.

"The No. 1 blocker right now is the agricultural community," said Assemblyman David Koon, a sponsor of the bill. He said he fields complaints from his constituents in Monroe County about "neighbors who burn all their garbage" and the "horrible smell.'"

Some lawmakers and environmentalists believe the Department of Environmental Conservation could ban open burning simply by rewriting its own regulations. The agency does not disagree, but argues that a legislative ban would have more muscle in terms of enforcement.

Environmentalists seem optimistic that New York will eventually follow the lead of its neighbors. "I think momentum is building across the United States," said Chris Neurath, a St. Lawrence County resident who operates a Web site (burnbarrel.org) on the antiburning cause. But Mr. Neurath acknowledges that the biggest hurdle in the campaign against backyard burning is the mind-set surrounding it.

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