Farmers can sign up for the service to use the company's bin and liner system for the collection of plastic waste. Solway will be offering comprehensive on farm appraisals to farmers using its service.
The appraisal will identify all farm waste streams and provide solutions for dealing with the outgoing material. According to Solway the appraisal will ensure that farmers manager their waste “safely, cost effectively and in compliance with the latest legislative demands”.
Solway's waste audit will look into various aspects of farm waste management, including new legislation, hazardous waste, plastics, scrap metal, waste exemptions and rubber products.
Andrew Prince, manager at Solway Recycling, warned that farmers needed to be aware of their obligations under new waste legislation – including the need to make detailed plans and to keep accurate records of how they deal with waste.
He added: “The waste management plan is specifically designed to clearly address these areas. It ensures they have followed due diligence processes to minimise risk to the environment, and that they meet their duty of care in recording waste movement off-farm.
“It will demonstrate their commitment to waste management that is increasingly required within assurance schemes and for businesses supplying food processors and supermarket customers,” he said.
Solway Recycling has a network of specialists across the country that will be able to provide the free on-farm waste audit. The inspections are being offered to any farm taking up, or already using, Solway Recycling's Bin and Liner system.
Ireland
Solway is also this month celebrating the export of its bins abroad for the first time. Around 200 of the bins were sent to the Republic of Ireland, with at least 1,000 more set to go later this year.
The FRS Network in Ireland, which is run by the National Co-op Farm Relief Services Ltd, has been collecting waste plastic from farms for nearly ten years, funded by a government levy applied to all silage plastics purchased by farmers.
However Peter Byrne, chief executive of the FRS Network, explains: “The levy system meant that there was no obligation on farmers to keep their plastic clean as they had already paid for the collection up front.
“This meant there was a huge cost involved in administrating, transporting and recycling this dirty material which sometimes weighs two to three times more with contamination,” he added.
High costs led to the scheme being suspended last September, with some farmers not having collections for the last three years – even though they had already paid through the levy system.
With the use of Solway's bins, the FRS Network will now be collecting through a pay-as-you-go system. According to Mr Byrne, the new system will work out cheaper for farmers and make it easier to collect from farms.
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