Successful start for the initiative “Erntekunststoffe Recycling Deutschland” (ERDE)

Wiesbaden, May 2014 – A first assessment has shown that the initiative “Erntekunststoffe Recycling Deutschland” (ERDE), which started in April 2014, has been welcomed by agriculture and by the collection partners. RIGK GmbH (www.rigk.de) began training staff at the collection points involved even before the official start. The farmers in the relevant regions had been informed in good time through public relations work by the collection partners and on the ERDE website about the collection dates. Six collections were already carried out successfully by the end of April – and more than one hundred are planned for Spring 2014. Information on where and when, listed by postcode, can be found at www.erde-recycling.de. The collection points are also displaying posters with the dates. The network of collection points is being expanded successively and discussions with more collection partners are currently underway.

ERDE Managing Director Dr. Jürgen Bruder of IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen e.V. told us: “All those involved in the agricultural film cycle – film manufacturers as well as collection partners, supply agencies and farmers – are actively living out their responsibility for sustainable agriculture and resource conservation through their commitment to ERDE. The high level of acceptance for ERDE that we can already see after such a short time clearly shows the environmental consciousness in this nature-oriented sector. This success right from the beginning allows us the justified expectation that the collection point network that has already been installed can soon be expanded into a nationwide network in order to substantially increase the quantities that are collected and recycled and thus further relieve the environment. With this in mind, RIGK, as the service provider for ERDE, is currently negotiating with cooperative and private, commercial companies as well as numerous potential collection partners in Germany. We are convinced that further manufacturers and original distributors of films will join this voluntary self-commitment given the visible success of ERDE.”

The ERDE system
ERDE organises the recovery and ecologically efficient material recycling of used agricultural films made of PE-LD films (silo flat foils, the corresponding underlayer films, foil hoses) and PE-LLD (silage stretch films, net replacement films) via nationwide collection partners, under the umbrella of IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen e.V. and in cooperation with RIGK as system operator. With a view to optimal recycling, both groups are collected separately. Plastic products not accepted via ERDE such as bale nets and yarn, crop forcing films and fibrous webs can be returned as part of the tried and tested RIGK service FOLIO & NETTI.

Supply agencies and farmers collect the crop plastics and return them, bundled, to a collection point. The acceptance price is determined directly at the collection point. Before acceptance, a trained member of staff at the collection point checks that the foils are swept clean and free of coarse dirt and do not contain any foreign materials that could influence the recycling. Recycling companies then process the collected goods into new plastic raw materials.

The members of ERDE are Manuli Stretch Deutschland GmbH, POLIFILM Extrusion GmbH, RKW Agri GmbH & Co KG and TRIOPLAST Folienvertriebs GmbH. These companies do not pass the responsibility to the customer when the products are sold but rather organise and promote the system for the return and recycling of their products together with the ERDE collection partners in Germany.

Successful premiere on 9 April in Dinkelsbühl
The first collection as part of the ERDE system took place on 9 April 2014 in Dinkelsbühl. The local BayWa site manager Dieter Schiebel told us: “As one of the first operators of an ERDE collection point, we are pleased to be able to offer the farmers here a practical and cost-efficient recovery system for agricultural films as an additional service. The collection worked very well and the response from the farmers was pleasingly positive. The date was well chosen as it is at about this time that the clamp silage is prepared for the first feed storage – after the sowing of the maize and before the first grassland cuts. The ERDE collection then offers the right opportunity to take the old films that have been stored in the clamp silage over the winter for recycling – as a ‘spring-clean the farm’ event, so to speak. It was possible to load the containers very efficiently and separated by groups thanks to the efficient training of our personnel by RIGK. We are pleased to be able to make our own contribution to resource conservation in this way.”

The company
RIGK GmbH (www.rigk.de), established in 1992, is a certified specialist for trademark users (packagers, distributors, retailers and importers) that organises the recovery of used, empty used packaging and plastics from their German customers and transports them for safe and sustainable recycling. In this regard, the company provides services for industrial and commercial packaging for products that are non-hazardous (RIGK-SYSTEM) and hazardous (RIGK-G-SYSTEM). Further RIGK services include RIGK-PICKUP (free collection of empty used packaging from industrial and commercial final consumers) and, for the agriculture sector, the recovery systems PAMIRA® (agricultural pesticide packaging), BEIZE (seed dressing packaging), PRE® (unusable pesticides and other chemicals) and FOLIO & NETTI (crop forcing films, nets and yarns) and ERDE (agricultural films). The company also provides advice for the creation of individual recovery and recycling solutions. Internationally, RIGK is represented in Romania. The Romanian subsidiary (www.rigk.ro) also organises the recovery and recycling of used packaging and plastics there. The shareholders of RIGK GmbH are renowned manufacturers of plastics and packaging materials.

® = registered trademark of the Industrieverband Agrar e.V. (IVA).

Further information:

RIGK GmbH, Claudia Hoese
Marketing and Customer Services
Friedrichstrasse 6
65185 Wiesbaden, Germany
Tel.: +49 611 308600-12, Fax: -30
E-mail: hoese@rigk.de; www.rigk.de

Editorial contact and specimen copies:
Konsens PR GmbH & Co. KG, Dr. Jörg Wolters
Hans-Kudlich-Strasse 25
64823 Groß-Umstadt, Germany
Tel.: +49 6078 9363-0, Fax: -20
E-mail: joerg.wolters@konsens.de; www.konsens.de

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