ERDE recycling: a closed circle
Used crop plastics are turned into raw materials!
Every year, tens of thousands of tonnes of different plastic products are used in German agriculture –becoming waste afterwards. Our goal: to collect all films, baler twine, nets and other products, and successfully reintroduce them into the material cycle through recycling.
The path from waste to new product
The films collected at our ERDE collection points are recycled exclusively by partners within the European Union, mainly in Germany. Here the plastics are washed, crushed and melted back into granulates. These recycled polymers are then processed further into new products – for example, agricultural film, construction films, foil bags or garden furniture.
1. ERDE organises the nationwide collection of used crop plastics.
2. The plastics are pressed and transported to the recycling partner.
3. The collected, cleaned plastics are crushed and melted into recyclate.
4. New plastic products are created from the recycled material.
For example, the amount of recycled polymers obtained from one tonne of collected crop plastics can be used the production of 12,500 tear-resistant 80-litre plastic bags. This means that every full container at our ERDE collection points may be turned into 50,000 plastic bags!
