ChemClear has collected one of its biggest hauls of unwanted and out-of-date agvet chemicals from farmers and chemical users during this year’s recent collection in South Australia.
Registrations for the collection reached more than 26,000 L/kg of agvet chemicals before the booking line closed in late March.
The registration total was more than the last three collections combined, where 20,400 L/kg of chemical had been collected and disposed of during state collection runs held in 2005, 2008 and 2011.
ChemClear National Program Manager Lisa Nixon said she was pleased to see farmers come out in droves for this year’s collection.
“This year’s total collection pool is six tonnes more than the combined total of chemical we have collected from the state in the last nine years,” she said.
“It goes to show ChemClear is gaining more awareness and support from all levels of government, communities, industry QA programs and chemical resellers.”
Under the ChemClear program, chemical manufacturers participating in the program apply a levy on products which is passed on to the consumer at the point of sale.
The levy, which is applied to participating manufactures products at 4 cent per litre allows ChemClear to collect and dispose of eligible products from farmers and chemical users for free.
Lisa said more than half of the chemical registered this year was collected at no additional cost to users.
“More than 13,000L/kg was collected free of charge because they come from one of the 108 participating companies who apply the 4 cents per L/kg levy,” she said.
“The remaining products that were collected don’t fall under our program either because they are unknown or don’t come from one of the manufactures who participate.”
Ninety eight per cent of the chemical collected is used as an alternative fuel source in the manufacturing of cement.
Most of the material is destroyed in kilns which reach temperatures in excess of 1800°C.
To register your unwanted chemicals for ChemClear’s next run, call the hotline on 1800 008 182 or visit Register Your Chemicals.