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2. August-September-October, 2014 F 19
T
his spring, a few new pioneers have been nobly pursuing
agricultural plastics recycling in Western North Carolina.
These leaders are expanding the field of what can be recy-
cled and learning the lessons of how to develop efficient prac-
tices. We share their lessons learned with you.
B.B. Barns Garden Market
Recycling Nursery Containers Returned by Customers
After the recycling session at the Green and Growin’ Show in
January, Barney Bryant of B.B. Barns, Arden, struck up a conver-
sation with Verity Recycling and Waste Reduction Partners
(WRP) about ways to recycle nursery containers from customers
at their Garden Market.
Subsequent meetings quickly led to a plan for Verity to place a
53-foot trailer at B.B. Barnes, to concentrate on Saturday-only
collection, to pay a staff person to work each Saturday to manage
the collection and sort containers, and an extensive effort to seek
volunteers for the events. B.B. Barns did a great job putting the
program in place. The Saturday collections started in May and
runs to the end of June. It has taken longer than expected to sort
material and acquire quantities to fill the trailer, but B.B. Barns
has worked through these issues and maintained their dedication
to offer this seasonal program to customers and the neighboring
community.
Rainbow Recycling and Leading Green Distributing
Lots of Pots Recycling Event
Rainbow Recycling, Black Mountain, and their partner Leading
Green Distributing, Black Mountain, have collected nursery
containers at the Black Mountain Garden Show for the past
five years. The pots they collected were immediately made
available for reuse and pots not reused were recycled.
This year they
expanded their
efforts with a new
event designed espe-
cially for small nurs-
eries, landscapers,
and farms but also
open to gardeners.
Appalachian Creek
Nursery, Swannanoa
offered to host the
“Lots of Pots
Recycling Event”
Saturday, May 24th.
Participants rolled in
throughout the day.
The crew of volun-
teers was busy nonstop, since sorting, stacking and wrapping
pallets of containers took longer than expected. Rainbow
Recycling organized the event for a smooth operation and
New Pursuits in Western North Carolina for
Agricultural Plastics Recycling
See Agricultural Plastics Recycling – continued on page 20
Marilyn Sobanski of Rainbow Recycling and Jeff Seitz of Appalachian
Creek Nursery.
Marilyn Sobanski, Rainbow Recycling,
solves the puzzle of efficiently nesting
#5 plastics.

3. 20 F Nursery & Landscape Notes
Leading Green Distributing handled the loading with incredible
skill, later transporting the material to the ultimate recycler,
Commercial Plastics Recycling in Newton, NC.
Lessons Learned from Community Collection of
Nursery Containers:
• Opening the opportunity for customers to bring back empty
pots, flats and trays is a much appreciated benefit to cus-
tomers, but it requires a well established system with dedi-
cated, paid personnel to manage it.
• Community collection leads to a broad diversity of plastic
types and sizes, and sorting by plastic type can be a chal-
lenge. Many pots do not have a number (#2, 5, or 6) to indi-
cate the plastic type they are made of, or the number can be
extremely small and hard to read.
• Many recyclers require material to be sorted by plastic type,
nested together and stacked on pallets for efficient transporta-
tion. This system increases the value of the material to the
recycler but is very time-consuming. Gathering one pallet of
material takes a significant amount of time, especially with the
#5 polypropylene, #6 polystyrene, and the unidentified material.
The HDPE #2 containers are easier to sort, stack and nest.
Solutions
We understand there are operational and marketing issues that
are barriers to this request, but any push back from growers for
standardization of nursery containers would be a big help for recy-
cling agricultural plastics. When you purchase pots, try to make
sure they are marked with the plastic type (#) to make recycling
easier and try to buy as much of the same type of plastic as possible.
Garden markets, such as B.B. Barns, and community recyclers
such as Rainbow Recycling and Leading Green Distributors are
amazing for tackling these challenges and working through
them, so making it easier for others to follow!
Haywood County Now Taking Overwintering Film
and Nursery Containers
The Haywood County Recycling Center in Clyde, NC, now
accepts greenhouse film. Haywood County is fortunate to have a
very modern, publicly run material recovery facility (“MRF”), and
unlike many local governments, they are permitted to accept mate-
rial from other counties. Cold Mountain Nursery in Canton and
Southeastern Native Plant Nursery in Candler have taken advantage
of this opportunity to recycle their greenhouse overwintering film
in Haywood County and both found it to be easy and convenient.
“We have been looking for a way to recycle our overwintering
plastic for years. Finally, we can do it locally without having to fill a
tractor-trailer. Thanks to WRP for helping us find this local
resource.” (Brad Martin, Southeastern Native Plant Nursery)
Haywood County can also take nursery containers in their rigid
plastics collection if nurseries will call before bringing in material.
If you are located close to Haywood County and would like more
information on Haywood County’s program, contact Stephen King,
Director, at 828-627-8042 or sking@haywoodnc.net.
Lessons Learned from green house film recycling:
As long as there is a recycler located relatively close to a
nursery, recycling overwintering film is just as easy as it is to land-
fill it. Why not recycle that material so that it can go back to more
productive uses in the economy and create jobs?
WRP is working to keep the list of recyclers up to date (see
below). If you know of recyclers that are not currently on our list,
please let us know.
For assistance with recycling any type of agricultural plastics,
please contact Waste Reduction Partners:
Bev Fermor works East of I-77 – 919-597-0698
bfermor@tjcog.org
Jan Foster works West of I-77 – 828-553-3530
jan.foster@hotmail.com
Information for Recycing Chart on page 21
* Durham, Fayetteville, Gastonia, Greensboro, Hickory, Jack-
sonville, Raleigh, Salisbury, Winston Salem
** Haywood and Watauga Counties allow nursery containers to be
added to their “rigid plastic” collection. Please call ahead to dis-
cuss deliveries.
Agricultural Plastics Recycling – continued from page 19
Toll Free:
1-800-PARROTT
1-800-727-7688
2508 N. Heritage Street
P.O. Box 3547
Kinston, NC 28502
Telephone: 252-523-1041
Fax 252-523-0145
E-Mail: mparrott@parrottins.com
Website: www.parrottins.com
Jake A. Parrott
Insurance Agency, Inc.
Serving You
Since 1937

4. August-September-October, 2014 F 21
Company Contact Nursery Containers Film
Unsorted Sorted
AEI Plus Carol Konchinski
Belmont, NC 704-827-3828 Yes Yes Yes
ck@aeiplus.com
BPR Plastics Hoan Evans
Midlothian, VA 804-739-9779 Yes
hoan@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
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, Ken Radford
Wilson, NC 252-237-3010 Yes Yes Yes
kkrecycling@earthlink.net
Maine Plastics, Curtis Tucker
Apex, NC 919-387-3644 Yes
ctucker@maineplastics.com
New Life Plastics, Susan Newman
Burlington, NC 336-222-7775 Yes
snewman@newlifeplastics.com
North Georgia Textile Recyclers, Ryan Ledford
Summerville, GA 706-844-2366 Yes
r.ledford@ngtsrecycling.com
Pelican Plastics, Pete Roy
Halifax, NC 252-467-2940 Yes
lproy@pelpack.com
Recycling Management Resources Jason Carter
Raleigh & High Point, NC jcarter@recyclingmr.com Yes Yes Yes
336-862-0735
Reily Recovery Kevin Reily
Chapel Hill, NC 919-933-3611 Yes
Kevin@reilyrecovery.com
Sonoco Susan Albritton
9 locations in NC* 843-861-2917
Susan.albritton@sonocorecycling.com Yes Yes Yes
Universal Commodity Services Inc. Igor Beylin
704-690-9668 Yes
ibeylin@ucsincny.com
Verity Recycling Marty Danco
Asheboro and Forest Hill, NC 336-465-4736 Yes Yes Yes
martindanco@aol.com
Waste Recovery & Recycling Joe Herring
Lowell, NC 704-970-7732 Yes
joeh@plasticmaterialsonline.com
Watagua County Recycling Lisa Doty
Boone, NC 828-265-4852 Yes Yes
lisa.doty@watgov.org