Toro, Revolution partner to recycle plastic from farm irrigation

Toro Co., a manufacturer of drip irrigation systems in addition to lawn mowers and snow throwers, has partnered with the recycling firm Revolution Plastics to reclaim plastic products from farm fields in California's central coast region.

To entice farmers to try Revolution's free pickup service, Bloomington, Minn.-based Toro is giving away a pallet of its low density polyethylene drip tape to those who recycle 25,000 pounds of any brand product through Oct. 31 and buy 480 reels of Toro drip tape.

Drip irrigation delivers reservoir and well water to the roots of plants at low pressure and low volume, which uses water more efficiently and improves crop yield and quality.

A pallet of Toro drip tape contains 16 reels and is worth about $2,000 on average, depending on wall thickness and internal diameter, Inge Bisconer, manager of Toro's recycling program, said in a phone interview. The 16 reels hold enough tape to irrigate about 10 acres of vegetables or berries.

"We're applying the water very precisely where it is needed — to the crop roots only," Bisconer said. "It's not going all over the place, not into the air or furrows that sink into ground water and generate weeds. It's a wonderful technology. Some farmers have doubled their yield with a third of the resources. You get more crop per drop."

You also get a lot of material that needs to be recycled when the drip tape is replaced. Toro is partnering with Revolution Plastics to collect and recycle the spent tape into trash can liners.

Revolution Plastics is affiliated with Revolution Bags, a sister company of Delta Plastics, which makes and recycles flood irrigation products at three facilities in Little Rock and Stuttgart, Ark. Delta serves growers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Missouri.

Revolution currently is consolidating and baling used agricultural plastic from transfer stations in Ballico and Camarillo, Calif., and shipping it to Arkansas to be recycled into trash bags and other products. However, it is looking for a warehouse site in the Golden State to set up a full operation there.

Revolution and Toro are getting the recycling service off the ground with a mobile app that lets farmers schedule pickup of their used drip tape by uploading a picture of the pile and dropping a pin on the location. Farmers hit submit and a crew from Revolution is dispatched to collect it.

"We developed the app with Toro to streamline communication between the farmer and us," Louis Vasquez, Revolution's director of corporate development, said in a phone interview. "Our lead time right now is less than two to three days out, which is probably 14-18 days better than the competition."

The app won the Irrigation Association's new product contest in 2016. Judges for the industry trade group said it provides a unique, sustainable business model.

Revolution is bracing for an increase in demand for its recycling service as drip tapes are removed from fields following harvest.

"That starts in late July and early August just north of Los Angeles and south of Santa Barbara," Vasquez said. "Over time, it moves to Santa Maria, and by mid to late fall and early winter, it moves to the Salinas-Watsonville area, which is kind of the salad bowl of the nation."

While farmers currently are eligible to receive up to 4 cents per pound, or $1,000 for recycling 25,000 pounds of drip tape, some pay hundreds of dollars per acre to dispose of it because of the lengthy waits for pickup. By participating in the Toro pallet program, farmers essentially double their recycling dollars to $2,000 worth of product or they save on dump fees.

"It's a really great deal for farmers," Bisconer said, contrasting Revolution's focus on drip tape and agricultural plastic to other recycling services that collect all sorts of plastic when resin prices are right.

"That market is so cyclical, farmers are often stuck with their plastic because it's not a favorable price and the recyclers won't come get it," Bisconer added. "Revolution is so excited about the unmet need for a consistent recycler in California."

Revolution rolled into Ballico about 16 months ago with one truck and now has the Camarillo transfer station, a fleet of vehicles and nearly 30 employees, Vasquez said. When the business finds a facility to recycle and manufacture, it will widen its service area and ramp up to 100-150 employees, he added.

"We're in a constant search for our ultimate dream home," Vasquez said. "Because we're a blown film manufacturing operation, we need a building that's 30-feet tall, or at least a portion of it, and outside space to store feedstock, which is the used agricultural plastic."

The business also needs a rail spur and access to a large amount of economical electricity.

"We've got electricity incentives from a number of utilities and also a tax credit to retain our operation in California once we find a location," Vasquez said.

Sales of irrigation products made up 6 percent of Toro's $2.4 billion in sales in fiscal 2016 compared to professional landscaping sales at 41 percent, residential landscaping at 28 percent and golf facilities at 24 percent, according to a May 2017 investors' presentation.

However, ag irrigation sales are expected to grow with the need to conserve water and demand for food production.

Bisconer estimated that California has more than 8 million irrigated acres of orchards, vineyards, vegetable crops, fruit crops and field crops like alfalfa and processing tomatoes. About 3 million acres are watered by flood irrigation, she added. While there will always be a place for all technologies, Bisconer said drip irrigation is finding fans as a management tool.

"It allows the farmer to turn the pump on and apply a small amount of water, even on a daily basis if desired," she explained. "The crop is happy with that. Like us, they don't want to drink three weeks of water every three weeks. Drip irrigation allows farmers to spoon-feed the crop as it would like. They get more crop output per unit of input whether it's water, fertilizer, energy or labor."

Once the business partners get established in California, they plan to offer recycling service to the Pacific Northwest and then the Southeastern U.S.

Revolution also has a recycling initiative for dairy farmers in Wisconsin, Minnesota and northern Illinois. Last year, Revolution Plastics put thousands of dumpsters on farms that use at least 2,000 pounds of dairy film annually. Revolution empties the dumpsters for free and collects the used LDPE dairy film for shipment to Arkansas, where it is recycled into trash bags.

Dairy farmers like the option over their previous alternatives of landfilling the plastic at a cost, burying it on their land or illegally burning it.

"We're collecting millions of tons a month from some of those dairies," Vasquez said.

He's not worried about the Arkansas facility being overwhelmed as recycling gets into its busy season in California.

"It probably has the most capacity to wash and recycle PE and ag plastic in the nation if not the world," Vasquez. "We have 120 to 150 million pounds of capacity at that plant."