15 August 2017
15 August 2017 (Canberra) – CropLife Australia congratulates Agsafe on the great success of its drumMUSTER stewardship program, which today celebrates a record landmark achievement, with the collection of its 30-millionth chemical container for recycling.
Agsafe, CropLife Australia’s stewardship organisation, first launched its end-of-life product container recycling program drumMUSTER 18 years ago, to assist farmers and ensure chemical containers were not stored on-farm, sent to landfill, buried or burnt.
Matthew Cossey, Chief Executive Officer of CropLife Australia said “The collection of the 30 millionth container is a significant and important milestone and testament to the commitment of world-leading stewardship initiatives by Australia’s crop protection product industry. The effort and dedication of the Agsafe team has ensured that 35,000 tonnes of materials have avoided landfill, and instead have been transformed into new products.”
“The program plays an important role in our industry’s whole-of-life-cycle approach to product stewardship. Collecting eligible empty and clean agricultural chemical containers from participating manufacturers provides agricultural chemical users with the tools to dispose of containers safely and sustainably. It also highlights and reinforces how important it is that farmers purchase products that are participating in the drumMUSTER program.”
“DrumMUSTER is today Australia’s longest running agricultural waste management program, with 814 collection sites operated by 360 councils and 142 other community-based collection agencies nationwide.”
“CropLife Australia members contribute millions of dollars annually in industry stewardship activities including Agsafe’s drumMUSTER, ChemClear® and Accreditation and Training programs. Agsafe’s programs were established and initially funded by CropLife member companies to ensure the highest standards of safety and environmental stewardship of the industry’s products. This is something CropLife and our members take great pride in and remain committed too.”
“The purpose of end-of-life-cycle industry stewardship programs such as these is to ensure that users of agricultural chemicals have available to them vital tools to improve the environmental sustainability of Australian agriculture,” Mr Cossey concluded.