Visit RAPP at Empire Farm Days, August 5-7, Booth #500
Cornell's Recycling Agricultural Plastics Program (RAPP) will be displaying its wares and showing how to recycle at Booth #500, just outside the main entrance to the Cornell Building (a.k.a. the Empire Building).
Learn how to operate a BigFoot plastics baler. RAPP is offering a free one-hour baler-operator training course, 10-11a.m. each day of the show. This will be an hour well spent with trainees a giant step closer to receiving the required certification to operate a BigFoot plastics baler independently on their own farms. Participants will be given a free instructional DVD to reinforce what was taught. Pre-registration by July 22 is requested, but drop-ins will be welcome if space permits. To sign up, call RAPP at 607-255-1187 or email agplasticsrecycling@cornell.edu.
For those who simply want to see the BigFoot work its magic, stop by at 2p.m. any day of the show for a demonstration. It's quite something to watch this baler transform a mountain of plastic into a dense, 1000-lb, four-foot cube in just about half an hour.
Best Management Practices. The trick to keeping plastic in shape for recycling is to keep it free of grit and gravel, and as clean and dry as is possible under farm conditions. Demonstrations of these best management practices' (BMPs) will be ongoing throughout the show, with specific tips on how to handle each type of farm plastic. BMPs and other recycling resources can also be found online at RAPP's website (coming soon!): www.agplasticsrecycling.cornell.edu or Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Recycling.Agricultural.Plastics.
What becomes of old plastic? Everyone wants to know what happens with old plastic once it is compacted and moved off the farm. The news is good: RAPP's partners in the recycling world are now able to process virtually all types of used farm plastics: bale wrap, bunker covers, mulch film, greenhouse plastic and more.
Some of this old plastic is turned into new products by manufacturers right here in New York State. The waste plastic becomes plastic plywood' boards, plastic sidewalk pavers, household and industrial-size garbage bags, and diesel fuel. Some is even made back into new plastic containers, films and twine that will once again be used on farms.
An array of these products, as well as supplies and equipment for storing and compacting used plastic will be showcased during Empire Farm Days at RAPP's Booth #500.
Agricultural plastics recycling is taking off, big time!
7.21.2014