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Importance of agri-cooperatives in National Collection Schemes : management of used agricultural plastics
AUTHOR : Ramon ARMENGOL, President, COGECA
European agri-cooperatives are major actors within the European agri-food and forestry sectors. More than 22,000 agri-cooperatives holistically support some 7 million farmers in their daily activity while keeping an attentive and strategic focus on the long-term evolution of the sectors. Farmer-members and forest-owners directly own and control their cooperatives, which are enterprises driven by values and created to satisfy their market, social and environmental needs using value-added activities and economies of scale.
COGECA is the voice of European agri-cooperatives and ensures that the role of agri-cooperatives and their contributions to achieving more competitive and sustainable European agriculture are recognized and strengthened. COGECA, along with COPA, have been signatories to the Circular Plastic Alliance since July 2020, which aims to reduce plastic waste across all sectors and increase recycling of plastics, thereby contributing to the Circular Economy action plan under the European Green Deal.
The effectiveness of national collection schemes
Our cooperatives and their members have a key role to play in facilitating the sustainable end-of-life management of agricultural plastics, as they are active in all parts of the supply chain. Many facilitate the sale of pro-ducts from the producer directly to the consumer, thus resulting in shorter supply chains. Agri-cooperatives also invest heavily in innovation and research, which not only creates value for farmer-owners by satisfying consumer needs, but also facilitates the development of socially and environmentally sustainable solutions. For the collection of agricultural plastics, these include economically viable and efficient schemes tailored to local needs.Â
Across the EU, a growing number of countries have implemented national collecting schemes (NCS), following their local legislation, encouraging users, distributors and producers to set up national collecting schemes for agri-plastics. In countries having implemented NCS, the collection rate is between 75% and 95%. Once collected, 98% of agri-plastics waste are recycled¹.
The potential for agri-cooperatives to lead NCS is clear due to several factors :
- their role as distributors in the agricultural supply chain
- their influence in the design of products
- their role in disseminating information to their farmer-owners
- their communications with public authorities and the value chain
- their key role in numerous member-states including France, where around 85% of the volume of collected agricultural plastics in the country is managed by cooperatives².
Across Europe, there are countless examples of agri-cooperatives facilitating such schemes.
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