As part of the campaign "Good Agricultural Practices", around 550 farmers from the Maule region in central Chile have been participating in a pilot project to recycle agricultural plastics waste. The campaign was organised by the Chilean environment authority and supported by waste management specialist RIGK (Wiesbaden / Germany; www.rigk.de), which has had a fully owned subsidiary in Chile since 2016.

The farmers received training on the management of plastics waste, with a series of 20 workshops, before taking part in the campaign. RIGK reports that 35 t of used mulch film, end-of-life irrigation hoses and empty agricultural pesticide containers were recycled or disposed of at approved disposal sites. More than half the farmers had previously burned or buried their plastics waste.

The Chilean environment authority plans to conduct regular collections of agricultural plastics waste. In addition, the pilot project is to be expanded to other regions of Chile.