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STREET ADDRESS Martin County 104 Kehukee Park Road Williamston, NC 27892 (252) 789-4370 Phone (252) 789-4389 Fax Map & Mailing Information Recent Tweets Tonight at 6 pm: [more] teams with #NCSU researchers to investigate germs in students' lunch boxes | [more] 
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It's been a long time coming, but Martin County is now set up to recycle agricultural pesticide containers. Winter before last, Lareo put in a grant request for $12,300 to set up the program. The grant was approved that spring. The money came from the Pesticide Environmental Trust Fund (PETF) which is administered by the NC Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. PETF was set up by the legislature in 1993 and is funded through registration fees of $25 to $50 paid by the chemical companies for each of their products. This spring, most of the grant money was used to construct a new metal storage building at the landfill in Williamston. Recycled containers will be stored there until a company called US Ag Recycling comes by to grind up the containers and haul them away. The ground up containers end up in things like plastic pallets and fence posts. Nonrefillable, highdensity polyethylene (HDPE) plastic crop protection and other pesticide product containers that are obtained from agricultural and professional endusers only, are accepted. Home, garden, antimicrobial and veterinary products are not accepted. All of the abovespecified containers, up to and including 35 gallons, are acceptable. These must be emptied and triple-rinsed or pressure rinsed so that there is no chemical residue left in the container. We will be inspecting these containers when you bring them in. We have to reject them if they are not in the proper condition. Getting the containers in proper condition is not that big a problem. Containers must be as clean and dry as possible. Store them under a shelter until you bring them in so they won't get rain water or dirt in them. A stained jug is acceptable but crystallization or a strong chemical smell is not. Remove the labels, any booklets, and rinsed caps to throw away separately. Punch a hole in the container if there's not one there already from a pressure wash nozzle. That's about it. Lareo has set up a schedule to collect containers at the landfill. Basically it's the first and third Wednesday of each month May through October, date subject to change. Why should you do this? You know how many plastic containers you accumulate on just your farm in a years time. Multiply that by all the other farms in the county. That's a lot of containers and a lot of weight. The county (that's you and your county tax dollar) pays by the pound to put this stuff in the landfill in Bertie County. The more you recycle, the more money the county (and you) will save.
Revised 5/2/2006. |