In cooperation with the Agriculture Container Recycling Council, GROWMARK, Inc., the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association, Container Services Network, Illinois Farm Bureau, and University of Illinois Extension, the Illinois Department of Agriculture has set the dates for the 2014 plastic pesticide container-recycling program.

Although there are three permanent collection sites in Central (McLean County -Heyworth), Southeastern (Lawrence County-Lawrenceville) and Southwestern (Greene County-Carrollton) Illinois, single-day collection sites at agrichemical facilities ensure that there is likely a location nearer to your farming operation.

These single-day collection sites are scheduled to begin near the end of the application season: beginning on July 29 and ending on August 29, 2014. The Illinois Department of Agriculture estimates that farmer participation in this program over the past 23 years has kept more than 1.6 million pounds of plastic out of Illinois landfills.

When pesticide users bring rinsed containers to the collection sites, containers are chopped up into granules that are used for the manufacture of other agrichemical-related products.

For more information about how to rinse and prepare containers for recycling, collection sites, dates and times, visit the Illinois Department of Agriculture's Agrichemical Container Recycling Program Website (Figure).