Late winter is when the covers come off. Polytunnel skins that have gone brittle over three or four seasons, last year’s wrap, torn netting and the accumulated plastic of a growing year all tend to get dealt with in the weeks before everything starts again. Agricultural plastic disposal is a genuine headache for smallholders and growers, mostly because there is so much of it by volume and so little of it by weight. Our Parbold skip hire service takes a fair amount of this off the surrounding holdings.
Why there is so much of it
Plastic has quietly become the default material for almost everything in horticulture and small scale farming. Polytunnel covers, ground membrane, mulch film, crop fleece, netting, wrap, feed bags, tree guards, pots and seed trays. Individually none of it seems like much. Cleared out all at once at the end of winter, a modest holding produces an amount that surprises people every time.
The area around Parbold and out across the flat ground beyond has a long history of growing, and there are a great many smallholdings, allotment plots and paddocks tucked away that generate exactly this kind of waste on a small scale. Too much for a domestic bin and not enough to justify a dedicated agricultural collection.
Burning it is not an option
This needs saying plainly because it still happens. Burning agricultural plastic is not permitted, and the reasons go well beyond regulation. Plastic burns dirty, at low temperature in an open fire, and what comes off it is seriously harmful to anyone downwind. On a still February morning in a valley, that smoke does not go anywhere.
Beyond the health side, it makes for very poor neighbourly relations in an area where houses and holdings sit close together, and it is the sort of thing that gets reported. A skip costs less than the trouble.
The same applies to burying it, which we still occasionally hear suggested. Plastic buried in a corner of a field is still there in twenty years, and it becomes somebody’s problem eventually, usually the person who buys the land.
What makes plastic waste recoverable or not
Clean plastic is a useful material. Contaminated plastic is not, and the contamination is almost always soil, silage residue or moisture.
Where you can shake, brush or hose the worst of the soil off a polytunnel skin or a sheet of membrane before it goes in the skip, it is worth the ten minutes. A cover that comes off clean and dry is worth something. The same cover rolled up wet with half a border’s worth of soil in the folds is heavy, awkward and far less use.
Keeping the streams apart helps too. Hard plastics like pots and trays, sheet plastics like covers and film, and netting all behave differently, and separating them roughly as you clear costs no time at all if you have three heaps rather than one.
Volume, and why this fills a skip fast
Plastic sheeting is the opposite of most of what we carry. It weighs almost nothing and it takes up an extraordinary amount of room, particularly when it is loose and full of air.
Fold and roll everything rather than bundling it. A polytunnel skin folded down and tied takes up a fraction of the space of the same skin thrown in loose, and loose sheeting in an open skip on a windy February day does not stay in the skip. That is the practical reason as much as the efficiency one.
Because the weight will never be the limiting factor here, size for volume. Our guide to choosing the right skip size covers the general principles, and for a full end of season clear an 8 tonne builders skip is usually more use than a smaller unit even though the load is light.
Keep the green waste separate
Most of these clear outs produce plant material as well as plastic. Old crops, spent growing medium, hedge cuttings and the general debris of a season. That material composts and is worth keeping clean, so it belongs in a separate heap rather than in with the sheeting.
Our garden waste skip hire service is set up for exactly that, and a clean green load is one of the better things that comes through our gate. Our environmental and recycling page explains what happens to both streams once they reach us.
Chemicals and the things that cannot go in
Holdings accumulate more than plastic. Old sprays, treatments, veterinary products, waste oil from machinery and part used fuel cans all turn up during a clear out, and none of it belongs in a skip. It needs separate and proper disposal, and our guide to hazardous waste and why it cannot go in a skip covers what to do with it.
If in doubt, put it to one side and ask us before the skip arrives rather than after.
Access and local coverage
Access is the usual constraint out here. Farm tracks and lane ends that are fine in July are a different matter in February, and our drivers will tell you straight if a track looks marginal rather than getting a lorry stuck on it. A hardstanding yard is always the better drop point than a field gateway at this time of year.
We cover the surrounding villages regularly, taking in Appley Bridge skip hire and Skelmersdale skip hire jobs alongside Parbold.
Ring us on 01695 769123 and describe what you are clearing and where the lorry can get to. Our contact page is there if you would rather send the details over.
