Kim Hill knows that keeping plastic out of landfills is good for the environment and for her county’s bottom line.  

Hill, the solid waste manager in Lenoir County, estimated that about 10,000 pounds of plastic—more than five tons—was mulched and recycled between July 2019 and June 2020 thanks to a pesticide container recycling program supported by Cooperative Extension at N.C. A&T. In addition to keeping plastic out of landfills, the program saves the county money on waste hauling. 

“Indirectly, we benefit because we don’t have to pay as much for hauling,” said Hill, who explained that the county operates a transfer station and hauls its waste to a landfill in Sampson County. “We pay for hauling by the ton. We save money, we keep non-degradable plastic out of the landfill, and we save on manpower because it is the farmers who are triple washing their pesticide containers and putting them in the cargo boxes.” 

While Insecticides, herbicides, rodenticides, and fungicides can make crops healthier and more tolerant of pests and severe weather, the plastic containers in which they are packaged can take hundreds of years to break down if disposed of in landfills. 

Recycling is one way to keep plastic containers out of landfills, and for more than 15 years, Extension at A&T has worked with Lenoir County to make pesticide container recycling simpler and more convenient for local farmers. In 2006, Mark Keene, then the agriculture and natural resources (ANR) agent in Lenoir County, wrote a grant to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA&CS) to improve recycling in the county. The grant paid for installing 40-foot metal cargo boxes at county recycling sites, where farmers could drop off emptied and cleaned pesticide containers for recycling. 

Walter Adams

Since then, Walter Adams, ANR technician in Lenoir and Duplin counties, has supported the recycling program by writing more grants to purchase more cargo boxes and expand the program to Duplin County. 

“Without these programs, more of these containers would end up in landfills,” said Adams. “One jug can take up a two-by-two-foot area in a landfill; there is no way to condense the size.” Both burning or burying the containers is illegal, even if they are properly cleaned, he added. 

The pesticide container recycling program allows farmers to take their empty plastic jugs to the sites with metal containers once they are rinsed and triple washed. The containers protect the empty jugs from high winds and bad weather and are periodically collected by USAg Recycling, a company that works closely with Extension and the NCDA&CS. USAg Recycling, supported by the Ag Container Recycling Council (ACRC), operates the equipment that grinds up the plastic to be recycled and used to make playground equipment, lawn furniture, and other products. 

“It’s a win-win for everybody because we do not have to pay to have the waste hauled away, and the materials are being reused for other purposes,” said Joy Pickett, assistant manager of solid waste and recycling in Duplin County. Pickett estimated that about 14,000 pounds of plastic from the county were mulched by USAg Recycling between July 2019 and June 2020. She hasn’t seen the numbers from the most recent year but said the program saves the county significant time and money. 

“Duplin is a big farming county, so there is a lot of these containers that farmers bring by,” said Pickett. “That 14,000 pounds equals seven tons of plastic that didn’t go into landfill.” 

Adams estimated that Lenoir County has recycled about 191,314 plastic pesticide containers since recycling began there in 2006. With the county’s landfill cost estimated at $1.61 per plastic container, the program has saved Lenoir County taxpayers more than $309,928 in landfill space alone. The story is similar in Duplin County: farmers have recycled at least 52,969 plastic pesticide containers since 2017. With the cost of landfill space for the county estimated at $1.23 per square foot, the program saved county taxpayers more than $65,151 between 2017 and 2020. 

“You can’t make these containers smaller when they go into landfill,” said Adams. “After grinding, I can hold a whole container in the palm of my hand. Plus, it's being reused. It’s good for the environment and the farmers.” 

Adams’ current role in the program involves checking the metal containers to see how full they are and making sure USAg Recycling comes for pickups before the containers are too full.  He also makes sure to get the word out about the recycling effort through the pesticide applicator training programs he conducts each year and through flyers and other promotional efforts. 

“There is not one person who has attended pesticide applicator training who is not aware of this program,” he said. “Every year, we have our handouts, and it is drilled into them: triple rinse your containers, or if you have a nozzle, pressure rinse them and bring them to one of the cargo containers for recycling.”