Leading premium fertiliser manufacturer, Yara, continues to support Big Bag Recovery program as a partner.

Now in its seventh year, this innovative program facilitates the collection, recycling or disposal of plastic waste generated by Australian businesses each year.

It is estimated that about 60,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste – including 200 million sacks and 10 million bulk bags used to store fertiliser and stockfeed – are generated each year.

Most of these bags are illegally burned on-farm or end up in landfill.

Yara Crop Nutrition supply chain manager for Australia, Lauren Booke, says plastic packaging poses a significant environmental problem.

“The cost of doing nothing is sending 40,000 garbage trucks to the tip and incurring more than $150 million of landfill costs,” she says.

“This is the equivalent of about six million tonnes of CO2 emissions, which is the amount produced by about 832,000 passenger vehicles.

“Currently, only about 10% of these bags are recycled, which is far from ideal,” she said.

Big Bag Recovery is a voluntary product stewardship program that collects and recycles woven polypropylene and low-density polyethylene sacks (including Yara’s 25kg bags) and bulk bags that are commonly used to store fertiliser and stockfeed.

Working in partnership with manufacturers, industry associations and local councils, the program manages the collection, recycling, logistics, marketing, consumer education, compliance and reporting.

To date, the Big Bag Recovery Program has recovered more than 4400 tonnes of plastic, representing a reduction of nearly 435,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions and a $11 million of savings in landfill costs.

Ms Booke said Yara which is a leading supplier of nitrate fertilisers to Australia, is committed to a range of other initiatives that support environmental sustainability, including its partnership with the drumMUSTER program.

YaraVita fertilisers are packaged in 10-litre ‘A Pack’ fully recyclable polyethylene bottles, including the labels and caps.

The Yara Crop Nutrition range includes YaraMila NPK compound fertilisers, YaraRega soluble NPK compound fertilisers, YaraTera specialty fertigation fertilisers, YaraLiva calcium nitrate fertilisers, YaraVita foliar fertilisers and Yara Liquids bulk liquid fertilisers.

Ms Booke said farmers can drop off packaging waste at council and community drop-off facilities.

It costs the growers nothing to drop these off as the cost is built into the stewardship fee. In some locations, bags can even be collected directly from farms.

For more information on drop off and pick up locations, call Big Bag Recovery at 1300 424 422.