Benjamin Bauman with bales of old irrigation drip tape collected from farmers' fields for recycling. Bales typically weigh 700-1,000 pounds, he said. Bauman estimates there are 460,000 pounds of material behind him.

Benjamin Bauman with bales of old irrigation drip tape collected from farmers' fields for recycling. Bales typically weigh 700-1,000 pounds, he said. Bauman estimates there are 460,000 pounds of material behind him.

PASCO, Wash. — On a day in May, Benjamin Bauman headed to a farm that had removed old drip tape from 1,000 acres of farmland. It was  laying in piles on the farm.

By removing and recycling the drip tape, Bauman wants to eliminate the hassle for growers who dispose of the used material.

Bauman is co-owner of AquaTech Irrigation Supply LLC, which recycles drip tape for farmers in the Columbia Basin and the Treasure Valley in Idaho.

In the field, drip tape is connected to a manifold, allowing growers to slowly apply water to their crops through holes in the plastic tape.

Farmers typically use drip tape for one season, Bauman said. They use about 15,400 feet of drip tape per acre, and at the end of the season, they typically take it to a landfill or store it in piles on their property.

"This stuff doesn't decompose, so it's going to be there a long time," Bauman said.

Customers kept saying they needed somewhere to take their drip tape, he said. So the business began to explore recycling as a service to offer.

"With this process, we have eliminated a lot of the handling," Bauman said. "We can move a tremendous volume in a very short time, and that's what makes it valuable, even to the grower. He's not having to send a crew out there to pick all this stuff up, throw it in a truck, send it to the dump and then come back."

Tape-winding season is typically late August through October. 

"When you're in the middle of harvest, the last thing you want to deal with is what you're going to do with this drip tape," said Taryn Hartley, who farms outside Prosser, Wash.

Hartley has used Bauman's service for five years. He estimates he uses drip tape on about 300 acres each year.

What would Hartley do with his drip tape without the service?

"I honestly don't know," he said with a chuckle. "I guess going to the landfill with it. I've never had to worry about that."

Farmers can buy or rent equipment to remove drip tape from their fields. The company collects the old tape at no charge.

"If they bring us loose material and we have to bale it, then we do have a charge for that," Bauman said.

He hopes the price of plastic rallies to the point that farmers can be paid for their used drip tape.

Treasure Valley area farmers pay to ship tape to the Aquatech facility.

Working with a plastic broker, the company takes the drip tape back to its facility, then loads it onto a container bound for the Port of Seattle.

The tape is shipped overseas, where it is ground up and extruded into small pellets to be used to make other plastic items. 

Aquatech and the broker are working to develop a domestic market for the recycled plastic, Bauman said.

The business keeps track of the pounds of drip tape it recycles for a farmer, sending a wall plaque noting how many pounds of drip tape were recycled from the farm for the season.

To handle the drip tape, the company built a large roll that can be quickly grabbed and loaded with a tractor. Farmers typically use small rolls that weigh 65 pounds.

Bauman hopes his service grows to a point that it can handle smaller rolls as well. 

"The machinery's expensive, and it's a challenge for some farms to switch over," he said. 

He'd also like to establish a collection site. 

"I feel like I can bring good value to these farmers by taking this stuff and putting it back into a good use," Bauman said. 

"You get it out of the field, you get it wound up and Benjamin comes and gets it," Hartley said. "It's easy. You don't have to do anything."

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Title: Co-owner, AquaTech Irrigation Supply LLC

I have been covering wheat and other topics for Capital Press since 2008. Recent stories include radicchio, emus, aphids and a Q&A with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. If you have a news tip, please contact me at 509-688-9923 or mweaver@capitalpress.com

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