MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - Australia's plastics industry has established a task force to examine options for disposing of plastic waste on Australian farms. Australian farmers use about 13.2 million pounds of polyethylene film a year to protect hay and improve the quality of produce.
Used film has been burned, but state governments now are restricting the practice.
Michael MacKellar, chief executive officer of the Plastics & Chemicals Industry Association in Melbourne, said the task force is investigating several options, including waste-to-energy incineration.
After a year's use, film is too contaminated or degraded for recycling.
Dimi Pesudovs, PACIA's national division manager, said the task force is studying projects in Europe that use waste-to-energy and chemical recycling for farms' plastic waste.
He said it will be difficult to collect film from farmers scattered across Australia, but the task force aims to have a viable system in place within a year.
