Drip Tape Recycling Now Available

Drip Tape Recycling Now Available

Toro and Revolution’s new drip tape recycling service is now available for qualifying Toro drip tape purchases.

The Toro Company is pleased to announce a new drip tape recycling service in California’s Central Coast region.  The on-farm pick-up service is now available to all Toro growers with qualifying Toro drip tape purchases.  The service is a result of Toro’s ongoing commitment to help farmers maximize production with efficient, sustainable drip irrigation practices. 

The service is offered exclusively in partnership with the Sustainable Packaging Coalition’s innovator award winner Revolution, a national leader in agricultural plastic recycling with operations throughout the United States. Most recently, they acquired and expanded an ag plastics recycling facility in Salinas, California, to better serve local growers.

“Recycling is now difficult for many growers because plastic recyclers in Asia effectively closed their doors to foreign recycling,” says Ralf San Jose, director of marketing for Toro’s agricultural business.  “This created a recycling challenge in the United States and other countries, making it nearly impossible for many growers to recycle their drip irrigation plastic.  But, thanks to Toro’s new drip tape recycling service with Revolution, Toro growers in California’s Central Coast now have a readily available and sustainable outlet for their used drip tapes.”

Better still, Toro’s drip tape recycling service is a part of a completely closed-loop production process.  Rather than sending the plastic waste to a landfill, Revolution picks up the used drip tape, cleans it, and makes recycled polyethylene resin.  Toro then uses this recycled resin in other drip irrigation products to close the loop and incorporate sustainable, and responsible environmental practices.

“Between global recycling changes and a market shift toward single-use drip tape, Toro’s drip irrigation recycling service puts Toro growers at a real advantage.  And with Revolution’s high-tech grapple hook trucks, field prep is easy and pickup turnaround time is fast,” says Sky Anderson, product manager for Toro.

This program extends a three-year recycling relationship between Toro and Revolution. “Toro and Revolution are attempting to fill a need for growers with drip irrigation in the United States,” says Louis Vasquez, Vice President and General Manager for Revolution. “Creating a closed loop system that facilitates drip tape recycling, which then gets made into drip irrigation products again (versus sent to the landfills). It’s exactly what this market needed.”