Fermor article

2. 28 ! Nursery & Landscape Notes
The Ability to Recycle Nursery Containers
is Gaining Momentum in
Johnston & Wilson Counties.
Bev Fermor – Waste Reduction Partners
Cyndi Lauderdale (Wilson County Agricul-
ture Extension agent) wanted to help BFN
reduce their tipping fees at the Wilson
County landfill on plastic waste. DEACS &
WRP visited Berry Farms and helped them
recycle 54 tons of nursery containers. BFN
had planned to reuse many of the flats but
then realized they had saved many more
than they could ever reuse. Many pots
were unusable by Berry Farms due to out-
dated logos on them. Fortunately many of
them were still nested and stacked on pal-
lets. Verity Recycling sent box trucks on a
weekly basis for Berry Farms staff to load.
Verity Recycling also took their sweat film
from their roses and overwintering films.
These materials generated between 10-15
cents/pound and Berry Farms also saved
$2268 in disposal fees. Berry Farms now
has more space and their work force is
happier and more efficient.
H
ere we describe the different approaches taken to recycle pots and flats. The NCNLA has teamed up with NC Dept
of Agriculture, Waste Reduction Partners (WRP) and NC Division of Environmental Assistance and Customer Serv-
ice (DEACS) to pursue opportunities for recycling agricultural plastics. WRP has received a grant from the Tobacco
Trust Fund Commission to support outreach and plastic collection efforts.
William Westbrook’s son Mathew is an en-
gineering student at NCSU and recently vis-
ited Australia as part of a class. When he
came back he told his Dad “You got to get
all those old pots recycled like they do in
Australia. The plastics that they are made
of can be shredded and remolded into new
useful materials like trash bags or even
new pots”. William thought this was a great
idea but didn’t know how to do it. He knew
Wilson County’s solid waste facility was a
few miles away from his nursery and won-
dered why they did not recycle the plastics
there. William had received a flyer about
agricultural plastics recycling at the Green
& Growin’ show and decided to make some
phone calls. Eventually he found Chris Pul-
ley at K & K Recycling in Wilson and loaded
up the pots that he could no longer use and
took them there himself. He has now built
up a relationship with K & K recycling and
they take all his cardboard, fertilizer bags,
overwintering film and old pots. He re-
ceives a ticket each time he goes and re-
ceives some payment. He also saves on
tipping disposal fees.
Fair View Nursery, Wilson, NC
Berry Family of Nurseries (BFN), Sims, NC

3. January-February-March, 2015 ! 29
Ruth Currin Holcomb (President of the
Johnston County Nursery Association)
and Amie Newsome (Johnston County
agricultural extension agent) have per-
severed to enable members of JCNMA
recycle their used nursery containers.
JCNMA visited Verity Recycling to dis-
cuss their needs with Marty Danco.
JCNMA “wanted a system that was easy
and did not cost anything”. When they
came back Alan Erwin of Panther Creek
Nursery offered his nursery as a collec-
tion site for JCNMA pots and flats and
continued the discussion with Marty
Danco on the logistics. This summer
they had a training event. Richard Cur-
rin loaded his dumptruck using a skid
steer, dumped them in front of a box
truck. Panther Creek staff then
“shmooshed” them into the box truck to
increase the weight on the truck ready
to be hauled to Verity Recycling. De-
spite the cool summer when plants
were growing well, some members of
the association still found time to de-
liver their used pots to Panther Creek
for recycling. Ruth Currin Holcomb
says “The trial was a success, they sent
5.6 tons for recycling and were paid 5
cents/pound by Verity which covered
most of their costs, which was their
goal. They will host another trailer in
the near future.” JCNMA have also
saved $235 in landfill charges.
Berry Family of Nurseries (BFN), Sims, NC
Wilson County Landfill
Johnston County Nursery Association
See Recycle Nursery Containers
– continued on page 30
Cyndi Lauderdale recently invited WRP to
present on the NC agricultural plastics re-
cycling project at the Wilson County
Green Association Meeting. At this meet-
ing Andy Davis of Wilson County Solid
Waste Facility became more aware of the
agricultural plastics recycling activity in
NC. William Westbrook and Melissa Dud-
ley explained to him there are a lot of their
customers who are landscapers who
would love to drop off used pots at Wil-
son County Solid Waste facility. Andy is
putting out a recycling container for used
nursery containers at the facility where
landscapers, growers, garden centers,
homeowners, Master Gardeners can drop
off their used pots and flats for free. Andy
will gauge the need to continue offering
this service dependent on how many pots
he collects. So bring those used pots and
flats to and help Andy make this service
work for you! Growers can reach Andy at
252-399-2823.

4. 30 ! Nursery & Landscape Notes
Pender Nursery, Garner, NC
L
and of Sky’s Regional Council‘s
(LOSRC’s) Waste Reduction Partners
(WRP) program received a two-year
grant from the Tobacco Trust Fund to sup-
port a statewide program for agricultural
plastics recycling in NC. WRP staff esti-
mates that more than 11,000 tons of agri-
cultural plastic are discarded annually from
growers and farmers across NC. These
plastics include plastic pots and trays,
hoop-house over-wintering films, row cov-
ers, black plastic mulch film, drip-tape,
growing media bags. WRP volunteers in
partnership with the NC Nursery and Land-
scape Association (NCNLA), the Depart-
ment of Agriculture and Consumer
Services (DACS) and NC Division of Envi-
ronmental Assistance and Customer Serv-
ice (DEACS) have been assisting growers
connect with recycling markets and work
through the material collection logistics,
which can be challenging, especially for
medium and smaller growers. The Tobacco
Trust Fund Commission recognizes that re-
cycling agricultural plastics has a number
of benefits for growers and recyclers in-
cluding saving growers money in disposal
costs, generating new products such as
nursery containers, promoting NC indus-
tries, increasing jobs, and increasing sales
through promotion of a greener image to
the public.
The $40,000 grant from the Tobacco
Trust Fund Commission will support the
identification of more opportunities for re-
cycling agricultural plastics by encouraging
more recyclers to enter this field, explo-
ration of more consolidation sites
statewide and testing pilot collection efforts
for the different types of used agricultural
plastics that could then be modeled for
broader implementation. Technical assis-
tance to individual growers to recycle dif-
ferent types of discarded plastics will be
provided. More opportunities to communi-
cate information with growers, landscap-
ers, farmers, garden centers, the recycling
industry, County solid waste recycling fa-
cilities and small hauling companies
through the development of a NC agricul-
tural plastics interactive web-site will be de-
veloped. For more information contact Bev
Fermor, Project Leader, WRP, e-mail: Bfer-
mor@tjcog.org
Pender Nursery reuses many of their old
nursery containers. However they saved
many more than they could ever reuse.
Ariel Montanez contacted Waste Reduc-
tion Partners for help. Due to labor de-
mands and nursery needs Ariel could not
turn his attention to sort, stack & wrap
the containers on pallets to densify truck-
loads. Marty Danco from Verity Recycling
visited Pender Nursery. Together Ariel &
Marty came up with a plan. Marty sent 2
people and Ariel found 2 people to stack
& wrap the pots on pallets. So far 3 truck-
loads of stacked pots from Pender Nurs-
ery have been recycled. Some of this
material will end up as new pots using
recycled material.
Tobacco Trust Fund Commission Supports
Agricultural Plastics Recycling Initiative
Recycle Nursery Containers – continued from page 29

5. January-February-March, 2015 ! 31
Company Contact
Nursery Containers Overwintering Growing
Unsorted Sorted Film media bags
AEI Plus Carol Konchinski
Belmont, NC 704-827-3828 Yes Yes Yes Yes
ck@aeiplus.com
BPR Plastics Hoam Evans
Midlothian, VA 804-739-9779 Yes
hoam@bprplastics.com
CHS Plastics Chuck Stoudemire
Fort Mill, SC 843-858-1966 Yes Yes
chuck@chsplastics.com
Commercial Plastics Recycling Jordan Hendrix
Newton, NC 828-466-2711 Yes Yes
jordanh@cprinc.net
Delta Plastics Scott Kines
Little Rock, AR 501-490-0395 Yes
skines@deltapl.com
Engineered Plastics Kurt Duska
Sanford, NC 919-776-6850 Yes
kd@engineeredplastics.com
Haywood County Recycling Stephen King
Clyde, NC 828-627-8042 Yes Yes Yes
sking@haywoodnc.net
K & K Recycling Chris Pulley
Wilson, NC 252-258-6338 Yes Yes Yes Yes
cwpulley@gmail.com
Maine Plastics Curtis Tucker
Apex, NC 919-387-3644 Yes
ctucker@maineplastics.com
New Life Plastics Susan Newman
Burlington, NC 336-222-7775 Yes Yes
snewman@newlifeplastics.com
North Georgia Textile Recyclers Ryan Ledford
Summerville, GA 706-844-2366 Yes Yes Yes
r.ledford@ngtsrecycling.com
Pelican Plastics Pete Roy
Halifax, NC 252-467-2940 Yes
lproy@pelpack.com
Recycling Management Resources Mitch Whitley
Raleigh & High Point, NC 336-862-0735 Yes Yes Yes
mwhitley@recyclingmr.com
Reily Recovery Kevin Reily
Chapel Hill, NC 919-933-3611 Yes Yes
Kevin@reilyrecovery.com
Sonoco Susan Albritton
9 locations in NC* 843-861-2917 Yes Yes Yes
Susan.albritton@sonocorecycling.com
Universal Commodity Services Inc. Igor Beylin
704-690-9668 Yes Yes
ibeylin@ucsincny.com
Verity Recycling Marty Danco
Asheboro and Forest Hill, NC 336-465-4736 Yes Yes Yes Yes
martindanco@aol.com
Waste Recovery & Recycling Joe Herring
Lowell, NC 704-970-7732 Yes Yes
joeh@plasticmaterialsonline.com
Watauga County Recycling Lisa Doty
Boone, NC 828-265-4852 Yes Yes
lisa.doty@watgov.org
Wilson County Recycling Andy Davis
Wilson, NC 252-399-2823 Yes Yes
adavis@wilson-co.com
List of Recyclers
*Durham, Fayetteville, Gastonia, Greensboro, Hickory, Jacksonville, Raleigh, Salisbury, Winston Salem
**Haywood and Watauga Counties allow nursery containers to be added to their “rigid plastic” collection.
Please call ahead to discuss deliveries.
Please contact WRP for further assistance, or to provide your recycling story. East of I-77 contact Bev Fermor bfermor@tjcog.org.
West of I-77, Jan Foster at jan.foster@hotmail.com. WRP www.wastereductionpartners.org also offer free energy assessments.
All photos provided by Waste Reduction Partners.