ERDE Recycling: recovery and recycling systems for agricultural plastics

Plastic is omnipresent and essential in many aspects of modern life. Agriculture is no exception: once grasses such as silage have been harvested, they must be stored and covered under layers of plastic sheeting. This provides an airtight seal that promotes the fermentation process, minimizes mold development, and keeps rain from infiltrating the silage. Germany alone uses around 60,000 tons of plastic every year for covers pertaining to animal feed production.

Although the plastic is being reused for several years, at some point it will have reached the end of its lifecycle. What happens to these enormous quantities of plastic at that stage? In this K-MAG interview, Dr. Lorena Fricke explains how agricultural foils can be recycled and reveals the resulting challenges for the ERDE Recycling project.

Dr. Fricke, why was ERDE established and what is the goal of the project?

Dr. Lorena Fricke: ERDE is a recovery and recycling system that was founded in 2013 by plastic packaging and films manufacturers as part of the IK "Crop Plastics" working group. It initially focused on the return of silage sheets and covers and agricultural stretch films. Our founding members were acutely mindful of their shared responsibility to recycle their plastic films after use. The ERDE Initiative is primarily a service for farmers. We provide a nationwide dense network of collection points. Farmers can rest assured that agricultural films obtained by ERDE collection partners are 100 percent recycled.

The three main goals of the ERDE Initiative are the promotion of a circular economy, climate protection by providing recycling materials, and a reduction of the amount of plastic entering our soil and bodies of water.

Where do the crop plastics of your project come from?

Fricke: Most of our member companies are based in Europe and manufacture crop plastics for the German market. The used foils come from the nearly 3,000 mobile collections and almost 600 permanent collection points across Germany. ERDE collection partners include waste management companies, agricultural retailers, contractors, rural youth development programs, and machinery rings.

What happens to the foils once ERDE has collected them?

Fricke: ERDE ensures that 100 percent of the collected foils and stretch films end up in mechanical recycling in facilities across Germany and throughout Europe. We do not use facilities outside of Europe. Some crop plastics such as round bale hay nets require different recycling options, which are being developed as we speak. Our partner, RIGK GmbH, is actively building recycling capacities for these products throughout Europe. We expect the first recycled volumes of round bale hay nets this year.

All documentation pertaining to recycling is audited by an external specialist. Our members highly value transparency.

Who and how can one join the project?

Fricke: All manufacturers of crop plastics that supply the German market can become members. We also offer memberships to distributors and importers. The agricultural trade can join in as part of "100% ERDE" by using and bringing only ERDE licensed goods to market.

Farmers participate by pre-cleaning the crop plastics, tapping into our network of collection points and by expressly using ERDE recovered crop plastics.

You endeavored to collect and recycle 65 percent of all silage and stretch films put on the market by 2022. How close are you to reaching this goal?

Fricke: We are very close but 2022 also notably challenged us. Last year we collected and recycled around 30,200 tons of silage and stretch film, which equates to about 56 percent of the total market volume in Germany. However, this year, the Basel Convention Correspondents' Guideline No. 12 will be adopted and is expected to have an unforeseeable impact on our established recycling routes. With immediate effect, plastic waste with a degree of contamination of more than 6 percent – meaning most used crop plastics - can now only be moved and disposed of in an environmentally responsible manner with the permission of the exporting and importing countries' agencies. It is still unclear how long this approval process will take.

Recycling plants for agricultural plastics are specialized in recovering items that have a high percentage of soil and straw attached to them – they require certain quantities to be profitable. Only the transboundary movement of agricultural plastics facilitates high-quality recycling and total productive capacity of these recycling plants.

This creates some bureaucratic challenges for us and increases recycling costs, but I am still optimistic we can reach our goal of 65 percent.

What successes have you had since your inception?

Fricke: One special highlight in 2019 was the "Voluntary commitment to recover and recycle used agricultural film", which the ERDE Initiative presented to the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, BMU. As part of this commitment, the ERDE initiative pledged to achieve a recovery and recycling rate of 65 percent for 2022. 2020 was a milestone since it marked the first time, we achieved the 50 percent recovery and recycling rate for silage and stretch film.
Last year saw another big success as we collaborated in the founding of ERDE Schweiz (Switzerland). The creation of the ERDE Initiative social advisory committee in the fall of 2021 was also a special event. This is a panel in which ministries, agricultural associations, environmental organizations, processing operations, and science get together to discuss the sustainable use of crop plastics and the development of a takeback system.

What are your goals for the future?

Fricke: We have integrated many new waste types for collection into ERDE since 2020. The goal is to continue expanding, increase the collection volumes and discover more recycling routes. I don't consider ERDE an isolated solution as we also plan to help set up recovery and recycling systems in our neighboring countries – Switzerland is just one example of this. This is in the best interest of our members and the European farmers.