A new project that collects plastic bottles collected from farms for recycling has begun in Yorkshire.

Letsrecycle.com reports that the Recovered Agricultural Plastics Scheme (RAPS) has been developed by Wrexham-based plastics reprocessor Recovered Plastic, working with East Yorkshire group JSR Farms and agricultural chemicals supplier Agrovista.

Under the scheme, which is two-and-a-half years in the making, plastic pesticide containers as well as seed and fertiliser bags will be collected from farms - mainly in the Yorkshire area - for recycling.

Plastic collected from the farms is taken to a licensed bulking-up site in Yorkshire, and then on to the Recovered Plastics plant in Wrexham, which has the capacity to recycle up to 15,000 tonnes a year. Collections will be carried out by licensed waste carriers contracted by Recovered Plastics.

Paul Rendle-Barnes, director of recovery and recycling at Recovered Plastics, said: "A lot of people are concentrating on the collection of silage plastics from farms. But they don‘‘t realise that there is a lot more plastic out there to collect."

The project, which has already been through extensive trials, involves around 60 sites run by JSR Farms sites and covers an area of about 25,000 acres in size. Mr Rendle-Barnes believes the farms could well produce as many as 160,000 plastic containers each year of between five and 205 litres in size.

Each of the participating farms has attended a training course on the washing and cleaning of the bags and containers, and they will be using a triple rinsing process. The containers will be inspected by external inspectors to ensure that they have been cleaned properly before they leave the farm. Documentation will be provided to confirm where the containers have come from, that they have been cleaned properly and that they have been inspected. The collected HDPE plastic will be used to make various items already produced by Recovered Plastics, including roof tiles. However, Mr Rendle-Barnes said that the company would ideally like to be able to complete the loop and supply plastic back to Agrovista.

Regulations brought in at the end of 2004 will ban farmers from burning or burying their waste plastic as of June 1 this year. Concerns have been expressed over a possible shortage of reprocessing facilities in the UK