AUSTRALIA'S first industry-led collection and recycling program for soft plastic agricultural input bags – bagMUSTER - was officially launched in Ballarat, Victoria, yesterday.
Collection sites are now opening across Victoria as Phase 1 of a national roll-out of bagMUSTER which is a new initiative of CropLife Australia in partnership with the Australian Seed Federation.
The bagMUSTER program will be delivered and managed by CropLife's wholly-owned, not-for-profit stewardship services provider, Agsafe, providing farmers with a free collection and recycling solution for plastic pesticide, seed, and other agricultural product bags.
"At full scale bagMUSTER will divert up to 45,000 tonnes of single-use soft plastic from landfills each year. This is a significant milestone for the agriculture industry and for national circular economy targets and a further demonstration of CropLife Australia's members commitment to world leading stewardship," said Matthew Cossey, chief executive officer of CropLife Australia.
CropLife Australia is the national peak industry organisation for the plant science sector.
"Plastic bags have become an indispensable part of agriculture, keeping farm inputs like chemicals and seeds safe and ready to use. This new program will further assist the nation's farming sector to be world leaders in sustainability, the circular economy and maintain clean farms," Cossey said.
"Today bagMUSTER enters Phase 1 of its national rollout, beginning in rural Victoria," said Alicia Garden, general manager of Agsafe.
"We've taken the best of drumMUSTER and are elevating the existing infrastructure and relationships we've developed over 25 years of delivering CropLife's existing stewardship programs.
"As the program rolls out nationally over the coming years, bagMUSTER has the potential to provide farmers and growers with hundreds of accessible collection points throughout regional and rural Australia. This will ensure that bags, no matter where they are, don't further burden our landfills, waterways and ecosystems.
"Instead, what was once a waste stream, will be processed to manufacture new products right here in Australia with Australian companies, reducing the amount of virgin plastic in circulation," Garden said.
"The great power of bagMUSTER is that it has been created by industry, for industry," Cossey said.
"While all the start-up funding to date has been provided by CropLife Australia and Agsafe, what we would like to see next is a genuine funding commitment from State and Federal Governments to get behind the first national program of its kind so that national rollout can be fast tracked and deliver even greater environmental and recycling benefits."
"The Australian Seed Federation and its members are deeply committed to making a positive environmental impact. We know farmers and growers want to increase the ability to dispose of these plastic bags in an environmentally friendly and safe manner, but it takes genuine collaboration with rural communities and governments to make these programs accessible," said Katherine Delbridge, chief executive officer of the Australian Seed Federation.
Farmers in Western Victoria can now participate in bagMUSTER by visiting participating retailers, purchasing eligible bags, and dropping them off at designated collection sites. For those outside the initial program area the follow-on phases will see expansion nationally over the next few years.
For more information, visit http://stewardshipfirst.com.au/bagmuster/
