Last year, 55% of the recycled volumes was even processed within Germany. Calculating the CO2 reduction achieved by recycling the 26,910 metric tons of silage and stretch film, the CO2 equivalent is 30,312 metric tons – an amount around 2.2 million trees will be able to bind each year.
In addition to the agricultural films already collected and recycled, the ERDE initiative is also committed to include other agricultural plastics in the collections. These include bale nets, asparagus films, mulch films, baler twine and perforated films. Some agricultural plastics have already been successfully included in the collections: The report to the BMU mentions collection volumes of 488 tons of bale nets and 613 tons of asparagus films in 2020. Baler twine and perforated films have been collected since the beginning of 2021. Mulch films are to be integrated into the ERDE collection system in 2022.