Roy Hiddleston, managing director of Dumfries-based Solway Recycling, is urging farmers to lobby Gordon Brown to abandon proposals that would add a levy to farm plastic in order to pay for its recovery once used.

Roy Hiddleston, managing director of Dumfries-based Solway Recycling, is urging farmers to lobby Gordon Brown to abandon proposals that would add a levy to farm plastic in order to pay for its recovery once used.

Hiddleston, whose com-pany won five major awards in 2007 for providing a low-cost recycling service to 25,000 farming customers, believes that market-driven schemes like the one Solway operates are more environmentally friendly and much cheaper for the farmer.

He points out that the Irish Government established a levy charge that was paid up front when selling new plastic on to the market, but the scheme failed. According to Hiddleston, there was no incentive for farmers to keep their waste plastic clean - an important factor in recycling - as they felt they had paid for its disposal up front.

The Irish scheme ran for eight years but only managed to collect 40% of the farm plastic even though every farmer paid for it. "Now, thousands of tonnes of used farm film are stockpiled in Ireland awaiting a home for recycling."

He points to the success of his own company, which was established in 1992 and is now the longest and most established farm plastics recycler. Currently Solway Recycling charges £17.50 to £22 (depending on location) to have bags of waste plastic such as silage wraps uplifted, The bags contain about 300 kilos. That compares favourably with the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' (Defra) proposal to charge a levy of £100-£150 per tonne on the price of new plastic before farmers purchase it.

Solway turns used farm plastic into new products such as bins, stock-board, sheep pens, and garden furniture. "Many of these products go back onto the farm it was collected from, completing the loop," he added.

According to Hiddleston, under the system operated by his company, more material gets recycled using less energy. "This means recycled products go back into the market at a much more competitive price against virgin material, so new recycled products create a better market demand."