0438 579 989Tonnes of agricultural plastic waste are pilling up on farms and at collection centres across the region because the plastic can not be cleaned and reprocessed.
The growing problem has prompted calls on the Victorian Government to help develop technology and facilities to clean the waste for recycling.
One collection centre, Katunga Recreation Reserve, has stock-piled 50 to 60 tonnes of silage wrap in two years, and cannot accept any more.
Reserve committee member Don Harrison said farmers, councils and potential recyclers were frustrated with the situation.
He said Katunga was unable to dispose of its stockpile and unsightly piles of plastic waste were icreasingly building up on individual farms.
“Government departments are just hand-balling the problem from one to another”, he said last week.
Mr. Harrison said just 1 kg to 2 kg of wrap from a bale of silage was equivalent to 300 to 450 plastic shopping bags.
Dirty plastic waste had previously been compressed in shipping containers and exported overseas, but the process has been halted because of quarantine issues.
The plastic waste is unsuitable to burn and Resource GV executive officer Nick Nagel said burying it in landfill to up valuable space and represented a lost resource.