Jody and Phil Brown’s farm is lined with black and white plastic weed mats, and tomato, pepper and capsicum seedlings are off to a great start.
Hidden black trickle tape slowly delivers water and fertilizer directly to the plant’s roots, while a blanket above keeps out weeds and protects the soil from the north Queensland sun.
“We’ve had a lot of problems trying to get rid of plastic. Many farms have big piles, and you can see that,” Brown said.
At the edge of the rows of pure white plants, garbage from seasons gone by is piled up to about Brown’s height.
“Back in the day, you would pick it all up and take it to the rifle range and use it as a shooting aid.” Mr. Brown said.
“But we don’t need them anymore. We’ve had enough,” Brown said.
Plastic weed mats prevent weeds from taking over fruit and vegetable fields in northern Queensland. (ABC Tropical North: Amy Mitchell)
Garbage accumulates
An essential tool in modern horticulture, plastics are removed by farmers after harvest, rolled into bundles, and disposed of in landfills, a process that can cost thousands of dollars.
Others, trying to avoid the cost, burned or buried it illegally.
At Brown’s Bowen Farm, 200km south of Townsville, truckloads of used plastic are piling up after the loss of a reliable and affordable collection service.
Phil Brown has been growing fruit and vegetable crops in Bowen for over 20 years. (ABC Tropical North: Amy Mitchell)
“Even if they had money, there was no one to carry it because their business was too busy to ask someone to throw it away.” Mr. Brown said.
“We’re going to have to remove it one truckload at a time, gutter and gutter.”
Agricultural waste consultant Anne-Marie Boland said Ms Brown’s experience was not isolated.
“We know that at least 100,000 tonnes of plastic is produced on farms every year, and the vast majority, perhaps two-thirds, is used in the horticultural sector.” she said.
“We estimate it to be about 7 percent. Total amount recycled. ”
Farmers lay trickle tape to irrigate and fertilize fields in the horticulture industry. (Provided by:RMCG)
Mr Borland said the further farmers move away from recycling infrastructure, the more expensive the solution will become.
“Once you transport[plastic]more than 300 kilometers, the costs start to outweigh the benefits.” she said.
Grazer Sandra Richards spent time exploring options to recycle plastic waste, first for her cattle and forestry operations in Richmond in the northwestern part of the state, and then for broader farming after selling her farm.
“I became interested in waste, which led me to discovering a very big problem that existed on farms,” she said.
“Especially in northern Queensland, it’s a long way from the capital and there’s nothing out there.”
Sandra Richards wants to find suitable land to build an agricultural waste recycling plant in northern Queensland. (Supplied)
Ms Richards took on the Townsville project with the hope of turning recycled agricultural plastic and wood waste into composite products for use as railway sleepers and park benches.
Despite showing promise, it never got off the ground.
Whitsundays Mayor Ry Collins, who had been working with producers in the Bowen-Gumle region before he was elected, said it was difficult to make projects financially viable, even in one of Australia’s key food bowls.
“If you’re a commercial business that ultimately wants to turn a profit, you need to show that you can turn a profit and be self-sustaining fairly quickly.” he said.
Cleaning the plastic is also an important issue and can make or break the proposal.
Farmers invested in the now-defunct technology after a previous recycling project in Townsville failed. (ABC Tropical North: Amy Mitchell)
The Browns invested about $30,000 to create special tools to clean plastic mats in preparation for the recycling program.
“They said if we clean everything properly and separate the plastic and trickle tape, we’ll take it,” Brown said.
However, the program failed to obtain government funding and collapsed.
“That was frustrating.” Mr. Brown said.
looking for a solution
Ms Richards is working with a family-run Chinese recycling company to set up a new large-scale processing facility in Townsville.
“They’ve looked at the availability of waste plastic quite a few times and the amount is huge,” she said.
Robert Ho said his family chose to partner with Richards because the project was close to both farmers and Asia.
Robert and Michael Ho are interested in establishing an agricultural waste recycling facility in northern Queensland. (Supplied)
“Before, we didn’t have this (recycling) technology,” he says.
“People used to think, “Just throw it away, just export it,” but that won’t go away.
China bans foreign garbage
“Exporting trash and burying it doesn’t mean it will disappear from the earth.”
Their facility is able to clean and process approximately 20,000 tons of plastic collected directly from farms each year, turning it into agricultural products such as produce bags.
However, despite several years of planning, a suitable location with the right combination of power, water and proximity to the Port of Townsville was not found.
Last month, the Queensland Government announced its Less Landfill, More Recycling 2035 strategy, which will invest almost $1 billion over five years to improve recycling infrastructure across the state.
However, there is no specific mention of recycling agricultural plastics.
Environment Minister Andrew Powell said there was a lack of investment in the agricultural plastics issue.
“If there are innovators, businesses or councils willing to work with farmers to come up with solutions, we are ready to work with them.” he said.
Ms Brown said she was hopeful there would be a practical solution soon.
“This is a big problem. It’s just sitting in stockpiles because we can’t put it anywhere else,” she said.
