Finnish agricultural and horticultural farms produce approximately 12 million kilogrammes of plastic waste each year, with only 20% of it being recycled. Most of the plastic waste from farms is not packaging, but bale plastics, clamp plastics, plastic sheeting and gauze netting, as well as irrigation hoses.

Plastic plays an important role in Finnish agriculture by preserving feed for domestic animals during the long winter feeding season. It is valued for its hygienic, airtight, cost-effective and versatile properties in feed preservation.

This project was funded through the environmental and climate programme of Lakeland Finland and implemented across Central Finland, North and South Savo, North Karelia, and Southeast Finland. North Savo, known for its significant milk production, ranks second among Finnish regions in agricultural plastic usage.

The regions of Lakeland Finland are part of the same catchment area, which is Europe's largest unified lake area. It contains thousands of bodies of water, making the area fragmented and logistics more difficult.

The project set out to create and pilot new operating methods for sorting, packaging and storing plastic waste and handling dirty plastics. This would require modelling the material flow of agricultural plastics in the project area and mapping out existing storage terminals, to produce a cost-effective recycling model for agricultural plastics based on data.

Creating preconditions for new sustainable businesses and cooperation between farms was also a focus, in addition to communicating information on the recycling of plastic waste through events and digital materials to create awareness of both the problem and new solutions.

The project began with the team drawing up a communication plan, and then looking to identify and prioritise the measures that would be necessary. These started with mapping the amount and location of agricultural plastic waste generated in Finland and establishing which equipment would be required for the collection of agricultural plastic waste, as well as the parties and terminals that would receive that waste.

A plastics collection pilot programme was prepared and organised, which eventually enabled plastic samples to be collected from the pilot farms, with samples identified and analysed in a laboratory involving condition tests and pyrolysis. At this stage, analysis, visualisation and planning of operating models of the collected data were also carried out, which would later lead to the investigation of potential replacement materials for plastic.

Six information events to create awareness of the issues at stake and how the project would work were planned and then held. There were also five regional workshops. To share the results, the team wrote a publication and produced a video, and also presented the results at a seminar using various media.

Plastic waste was investigated on a total of 377 farms, and information related to its transport and utilisation was collected from 15 companies in the waste chain (e.g. logistics, plastics processors and plastic waste users).

The project collected more than 1 500 million kilogrammes of plastic waste from 173 farms. While this represents less than 0.5% of Finnish farms, the plastic waste collected was more than 6% of the amount of plastic purchased by all the farms each year nationally. In addition, five companies from the plastics transport and treatment sector participated in the collection of plastic waste. To determine the quality of agricultural plastic waste in the laboratory, samples were collected from eight of the farms.

The project was very active in disseminating the results of its activities. Seven webinars were held, of which five were recorded. Five regional workshops were organised, with 168 people participating in the webinars and other events of the project. Two podcasts and one video were recorded, while five blog posts and three online editorials on the project were published on various media.

The project has increased the understanding of farmers and actors in the agricultural plastic waste chain on the practices and collection bottlenecks of other actors in the chain, and on good practices in the circular economy. It has also provided information on the challenges of handling plastic waste on farms to other research and development organisations and administrative bodies through stakeholder cooperation.

The project collected more than 1.5 million kilogrammes of plastic waste from Lakeland Finland's farms, which is an incredible achievement in itself, beyond any secondary benefits that will come further down the line in terms of research and awareness. It involved many different actors and perspectives, but everyone had a shared intent and a genuine desire to develop the collection and recycling of agricultural plastics, and this was instrumental in the project’s success. Each stakeholder and their respective opinions were included from the start, with solutions sought by cross-pollinating different views and problems, and this helped to open up overarching operational solutions.