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Agrichemicals

Why are agrichemicals a problem?

Improper use or disposal of agricultural chemicals (or agrichemicals) can pose a significant risk to the environment, human and animal health, and trade. Leaking chemical containers can poison waterways, soil and groundwater.

New Zealand’s agriculture sector uses a variety of chemicals for pest and weed management, animal health, sanitation and export requirements.

Agrichemicals may become surplus when farming methods or owners change, chemicals expire, or chemicals previously in use are deregistered. Some surplus agrichemicals are inappropriately stored, in damaged containers, or are unlabelled.

For some agrichemicals, New Zealand also has international obligations under the Stockholm and Basel Conventions.

Who collects waste agrichemicals?

Waste agrichemicals and their containers are collected by regional councils and the Agrecovery chemicals programme.

Although the bulk of legacy agrichemicals are considered cleared in most regions, residual amounts still remain and waste continues to be generated from use of more modern chemicals.

Some regional councils have programmes that are coordinated and co-funded with Agrecovery.  Some do not co-fund local Agrecovery collections, and others have an independent programme or no currently active programme.

The Agrecovery chemicals programme is a not-for-profit charitable trust and has over 50 brand owner members paying levies to support end-of-life treatment of their products. This levy only covers modern and currently registered agrichemicals of the member companies, and a user-pays or ratepayer-pays framework is available for other chemicals. The programme has been accredited as a voluntary product stewardship scheme by the Minister for the Environment under Part 2 of the Waste Minimisation Act.

Agrichemicals clearance initiatives 2003-2010

The Ministry for the Environment actively engaged with regional councils from 2003 to 2009 to substantially reduce the burden of legacy agrichemicals in the New Zealand environment.

Approximately 80% of the agrichemicals collected in this programme were “intractable”, or unable to be safely treated in New Zealand. Intractable chemicals are disposed of by shipping to an approved high temperature incinerator overseas, typically in France or Germany. The remainder of the collected agrichemicals were treated and disposed of in New Zealand.

The first three years of the programme cost $3.5 million in central government funding, which supplemented the collection and local disposal costs borne by regional councils. The programme was successful in clearing more than 400 tonnes of legacy agrichemicals from farms.

In February 2006 a Ministry report outlined the volume of intractable agrichemicals remaining on rural properties in New Zealand. This report estimated that as at 30 June 2006 there were approximately 175 tonnes of intractable agrichemicals remaining in New Zealand, and many regions were effectively clear (very low levels remaining) of legacy agrichemicals.

In March 2006 the Minister for the Environment extended the agrichemical programme for a further three years, with a budget of $1.5 million.

In 2010, a further $200,000 was approved as a transitional measure to co-fund collection and treatment of intractable chemicals collected by the Agrecovery programme. To date this has funded the export over 5 tonnes of intractable agrichemicals for treatment. These funds are expected to be fully expended before December 2012.

International obligations

Among the intractable chemicals collected in New Zealand are legacy chemicals which have been declared as Persistent Organic Pollutants (or POPs) under the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Safe, effective collection and disposal of these chemicals is required for New Zealand to meet our obligations under the Stockholm Convention.

Pesticide-related POPs continue to be presented by farmers for collection in New Zealand. An estimated 2 tonnes of the agrichemicals collected in 2009 through 2011 contained POPs.

The Basel Convention requires the disposal of hazardous wastes to occur in an environmentally sound and efficient way. Offshore shipments of intractable agrichemicals for disposal have been done in strict compliance with the Basel Convention. The spirit of the Basel Convention requires nations to move toward managing hazardous wastes locally where possible, but there are currently no facilities suitable for treating these intractable chemicals in New Zealand.

What is the long-term solution?

Options are being investigated to provide a more comprehensive and longer term solution for the safe, effective and environmentally sound disposal of agricultural chemicals.

Among the options is greater use of the product stewardship provisions of the Waste Minimisation Act 2008.  Effective product stewardship would include incentives for all producers and manufacturers to take responsibility for their agrichemical products beyond sale, and to agrichemical users to fully participate in collection schemes.

Safety tips

To help protect your family, friends, property and the environment see safety tips for handling, storing and transporting hazardous substances.

 

Last updated:20 April 2012