Equipment accelerates poly film removal for recycling

Problem: Removing polyethylene film from hoop houses can take many expensive man-hours.

Solution: The Tiger Baler provides an automated option to removing plastic, reducing labor exponentially.

Details: Johnson Farms in Deerfield, N.J., slashed the labor-intensive job of removing greenhouse poly in half. What used to take four weeks and 10 men removing poly by hand now takes two weeks with a crew of five to remove it with the Tiger Baler. The farm acquired the baler in 2004.

“The baler basically sucks the plastic off and compacts it into a 2-foot-by-4-foot bale,” said Keith MacIndoe, general manager at Johnson Farms and vice president of the New Jersey Nursery and Landscape Association (NJNLA). The baler was a $20,000 investment; the farm recouped its money in about two years, he said.

The original Tiger Baler is no longer being manufactured and has been replaced with the BigFoot Baler.

Discarded greenhouse polyethylene is in demand from recyclers, MacIndoe said.

One of NJNLA’s goals was to promote recycling as a key part of the green industry, he said. “I knew there had to be a better way instead of dumping this poly and plastic in landfills,” he said. “We found a recycler in Maryland that pays us for the plastic. We used to pay to put it in the landfill.”

The recycler sends a tractor-trailer to pick up the recyclables. The farm also recycles pots and HDPE triple-rinsed pesticide containers. The farm has recycled more than 125 tons of agricultural plastics. In 2007, Johnson Farms received the Recycling Leadership Award for business from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. MacIndoe’s recycling efforts have saved thousands of dollars in landfill tipping fees and gained revenue by selling the material to the recycler.

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For more: Johnson Farms, (856) 358-1123; www.johnsonfarmsinc.com. BigFoot Baler, (941) 761-8293; www.bigfootbaler.com.

April 2008