Agriculture silage stretch and film suppliers are to encourage the increased collection of used farm films through an initiative under the management of the UK’s Packaging and Films Association (PAFA, Nottingham / UK; www.pafa.org.uk). Participating in the initiative are Barbier (Sainte-Sigolène / France; www.barbiergroup.com/en), BPI (BPI, Greenock / Scotland; www.bpipoly.com), Coveris (Chicago, Illinois / USA; www.coveris.com), RKW Agri (Michelstadt / Germany; www.rkw-group.com), Rani Plast (Teerijärvi / Finland; www.raniplast.com), Silawrap (Gorey, Co Wexford / Ireland; www.silawrap.ie), Tama (Israel; www.tama.co.il), Total (Paris / France; www.total.com) and Trioplast (Smålandsstenar / Sweden; www.trioplast.com). In addition, PAFA will be working throughout 2015 to encourage other suppliers to the UK agricultural market to join the initiative.

PAFA said there will be a progressive launch of the initiative as dialogue and discussion take place with all those involved in the logistics chain. This will run alongside an information-gathering process to ensure the proposed initiative is developed to achieve real environmental benefits.

PAFA chief executive Barry Turner said: “It is hoped that this initiative will lead towards a step change in the collection of agricultural plastic films which already pose unique challenges due to the level of crop and soil contamination. It follows on from initial consultation with the NFU [National Farmers Union] and a number of collectors and distributors operating in the UK market as well as an extensive trial involving a large number of farmers.”

Although initially concentrating on silage stretch film and sheeting, the initiative is intended to be expanded in future to include other products used on farms and in horticulture. For this reason the initiative will be reaching out in 2015 to the many businesses and organisations that operate in this sector.