Netafim launches agricultural recycling certification program

Netafim USA, the Fresno, California-based precision agricultural business of Orbia, has launched the Netafim ReGen AgVantage Certification Program, which it says creates a new standard for Netafim’s grower partners who have demonstrated a commitment to sustainability by working with them to reduce dripline plastic waste and minimize their environmental impact.

Orbia has commercial activities in more than 110 countries, with global headquarters in Boston, Mexico City, Amsterdam and Tel Aviv, Israel.

The program is designed to provide an environmentally responsible way for farmers to recycle used dripline material and creates a closed-loop recycling process to reduce landfill waste.

According to the company, ReGen is the industry’s first fully circular dripline recycling solution. Netafim works with its partners to retrieve used polyethylene (PE) plastic dripline materials and processes them in its Fresno recycling facility. The facility first opened in 2007 and processes end-of-life drip irrigation tubing through a proprietary process developed over the last 16 years. Netafim says it uses recycled material to manufacture new, high-quality dripline products, such as its Streamline X EZ.

Netafim tells Recycling Today it processes millions of pounds of plastic every quarter and is planning to increase that amount moving forward. The company extrudes the dripper lines in Fresno, and they are delivered by semitruck as a drop ship to the grower in the field.

Netafim says that the grower will install the dripper lines and use them for the life of the crop—between 30 to 90 days based on what it has calculated from customers located on the central coast of California. Once the crop cycle is completed, the dripper lines are coiled up using an Andros Engineering Mega Binder—a machine designed by the Pasa Robles, California-based company to efficiently retrieve drip tape and agricultural plastics—then stored until Netafim can transport them to its Fresno recycling facility.

Earlier this year, Netafim was certified through SCS Global Services, an Emeryville, California-based third-party quality, environmental and sustainability verification, certification, auditing and testing company, and claims it is the only precision irrigation company with a certified plastics recycling facility and certified recycled content in the United States.

“Third-party validation is becoming increasingly important to multinational companies like Walmart and Amazon,” Netafim Product Manager Tate Kelley says. “Now, the Netafim ReGen recycling certification will help growers improve sustainability scores and enhance their corporate image. It’s one more way for us to support growers. Netafim already offers the industry’s only fully circular recycling process, and we are excited to build on it and grow with our customers.”

Through its program, partner growers and shippers will be recognized as certified irrigation plastics recyclers. Netafim says achieving this certification highlights partners’ continued efforts toward recycling and reducing landfill waste to positively impact the environment. Soledad, California-based Braga Fresh and Salinas, California-based Church Brothers Farms are the program’s inaugural partners and officially have received the certification.

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Netafim says it invites all growers who meet the requirements and want to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability to become a partner in the ReGen program. Interested growers can contact Kelley by filling out a form here.

“Netafim’s founding mission is to grow more with less to solve some of the world’s biggest environmental problems,” says Chuck Bates, Netafim USA vice president of products and agronomy. “We work every day to live out this mission and partner with growers to expand our impact. We recently achieved SCS Global Services’ recycled content certification and recycling program certification and decided to go one step further by offering our recycling expertise to our partners, further extending our reach and progressing in our mission.”