In its successful cooperation with farmers, collection points and foil manufacturers, the ERDE recycling initiative has ambitious plans. By 2022 it aims to collect and recycle 65% of all agricultural and stretch foils on the German market. The initiative plans to include additional types of films and the integration of bale nets has already been agreed upon. With its very first own stand at Agritechnica, ERDE has also been offering visitors information on its work and goals.

Since its founding in 2013, the work of the ERDE initiative (Crop Plastics Recycling Germany) has been focussing on closing the reusable materials cycle for agricultural plastics and preventing their entry into the soil and the environment. ERDE currently already collects 35 % of used agricultural and stretch films and ensures that these are 100 % recycled. They are turned into valuable raw materials, which are, for example, suitable for new agricultural and building films, irrigation hoses and waste collection bags. 70 % of the collected films are recycled in Germany, the rest is recycled in other EU countries. In mid-2019, ERDE committed voluntarily to set itself the ambitious goal of increasing the collection and recycling rate to 65 % by 2022. The IK Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackungen e.V (German Association for Plastics Packaging and Films), the Deutsche Raiffeisenverband (represents the interests of the German agricultural and food industry), the Federal Association of the Agricultural Economy as well as the Federal Association of Contractors have also joined this voluntary commitment.

Whether it is possible to achieve this goal depends entirely on the number of companies which actively embody their responsibility for their products and the environment by joining ERDE. This door is open to every manufacturer or initial distributor of foils and bale nets that supplies the German market. 16 companies are currently making use of this opportunity. The foil manufacturers include ASPLA S.A., Groupe Barbier, bpi agriculture, COVERIS FLEXIBLES AUSTRIA GMBH, DUOPLAST AG, Manuli Stretch Deutschland GmbH, POLIFILM Extrusion GmbH, Ab Rani Plast Oy, RKW Agri GmbH & Co., Solplast S.A., Sotrafa S.A., TRIOPLAST GmbH and recently also Reyenvas S.A. With CLAAS Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH taking part, a well-known OEM (original equipment manufacturer) has also joined the initiative.

As further foils and bale nets will be included in the future to help fulfil the goal of a comprehensive recycling solution for agricultural plastics, three manufacturers of bale nets joined ERDE in 2019: KARATZIS S.A., RKW Agri GmbH & Co. and TAMA Plastic Industry. With regard to this, Ewald Werschmann, authorised officer of the German Tama CE GmbH says, “The use of state-of-the-art technologies in the manufacture and use of bale nets for the benefit of the agricultural industry is a long tradition and great strength of Tama. In this way, it is only logical and a matter of course for us to actively contribute to the collection and appropriate recycling of our products after their use through our participation in ERDE.”

With its very first own stand at Agritechnica, the world’s leading trade fair for agricultural machinery, which was held in Hannover from in November 2019, ERDE informed visitors about the collection organisation as well as further associated activities and achievements.

More information about ERDE-Recycling you will find here

Further Information:
RIGK GmbH
Boris Emmel
System Manager ERDE
Friedrichstr. 6, 65185 Wiesbaden
Phone: +49 611 308600-20, Fax: -30
emmel(at)rigk.de; www.rigk.de