Gisborne sheep and beef farmer Myles Mullooly credits much of his recycling to his partner Adriana, who he says is a greenie through and through.

Myles is among hundreds of farmers nationwide who've helped Agrecovery Rural Recycling container collections hit 30,000kg for the month of May – the largest-ever monthly volume since the programme began in 2007.

Farmers recycled 30,000kg of agri-containers during May.

Agrecovery marketing manager Duncan Scotland says the 30,000kg equates to a 20foot shipping container being filled with recycled plastic every day of the month.

'So it was a lot of containers diverted from burning or dumping.”

Myles says he tends to let the drench containers build up, 'but Adriana whips me along and reminds me to get the containers down to the collection site”.

'It's great to have a place that will take them and you know they're actually getting recycled,” says Myles.

'We do reuse some of the containers, but there are only so many uses you can find for them. Previously, they would have just gone to the dump, so it's really good to have an alternative.

Myles says eh and Adriana are trying to be good custodians of their farm environment, choosing more natural products where practical – as many people are.

'Recycling the containers is just another part of that.”

Myles and Adriana supply lamb to the Ovation programme and steers and heifers to Greenlea Meats and Progressive Enterprises.

'We've been using Agrecovery for a while now, and the local depot in Matawhero, Gisborne, really makes it convenient,” says Myles.

'I don't know how many farmers are in our neck of the woods but it must add up to a hell of a lot of drench containers.

'I recommend other farmers recycle in this way – the empty containers take up a lot of room and it's a good way to clean up the drench shed.”

The empty, triple-rinsed containers are recycled at plants in Auckland and Christchurch, with most of the plastic being used to make underground cable covers.

According to Agrecovery, the 190 tonnes of containers collected so far this financial year equates to a 15cm-wide cable cover reaching from Auckland to Invercargill and back.

The amount of energy saved using this volume of recycled plastic versus new plastic equates to 323,000 litres of petrol.