Before: Pesticide containers dumped in the woods.

After: The proper and safe recyling of pesticide containers.

Since 1983, Maine has had a deposit law for restricted use pesticide containers. Over the years, Board of Pesticide Control (BPC) inspectors assured that the most hazardous pesticide containers were returned, thoroughly cleaned and properly disposed of in a licensed solid waste facility. However, the law does not include general-use pesticide containers, which, without any controls, end up burned on-site, or in public landfills and incinerators.

In 1991, to keep plastic pesticide containers completely out of the waste stream, Aroostook County took the next logical step: On a strictly voluntary basis, pesticide dealers, and the non-profit Ag Container Recycling Council (ACRC) began recycling both restricted- and general-use plastic pesticide containers, to be used to create specific new products where chemical purity is not a priority. With oversight and coordination from the BPC, plastic containers, collected throughout the growing season, are taken to a transfer station, baled, and then sold and recycled for use in non-consumer products, such as railroad ties, pallets, fence posts, and speed bumps.

Through this program, Maine has recycled an average of 30,000 pounds of #2 plastic annually since 2001. Nationally, since the program started, approximately 82 million pounds have been recycled. While this effort has continued to work well in Aroostook County, success in southern and central Maine has been more limited, due to a lack of participating transfer stations. During 2007, the BPC worked with the ACRC to establish two new participating transfer stations: one in Dexter and one in Machias. This should help facilitate expansion of the recycling program in southern areas.