Cornell RAPP/Lois Levitan

A young volunteer helps give notice that the Cornell New York State Recycling Agricultural Plastics Project will have a new style of agricultural plastics baler on display and demonstrating at the 2012 Empire Farm Days, Aug. 7-9. Visitors will be invited to "Name That Baler."

The 2012 Empire Farm Days, Aug. 7-9, will offer visitors the opportunity to see new agricultural plastics recycling equipment, baled plastic, finished recycled products and training resources.

Cornell's New York State Recycling Agricultural Plastics Project (RAPP) will have a "Big Foot" plastics baler and a new horizontal baler working and on exhibit at the Northeast's largest outdoor agricultural trade show at Rodman Lott and Son Farms in Seneca Falls, N.Y. Both balers are mobile units specifically designed for compacting agricultural plastics. Both balers were purchased with funding from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

The demonstrations will take place daily at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. RAPP representatives will show how to sort, bundle and make bales from used farm plastics.

Baling used plastics can save farm and business owners landfill and dumpster fees of $70 or more per ton.

RAPP leader Lois Levitan, senior extension associate at Cornell, and RAPP Senior Field Coordinator Nate Leonard, both in the Department of Communication, will display samples of new products made from recycled agricultural plastics, including TERREWALKS granite sidewalk pavers made from recycled black and white silage bags. The darker gray pavers are an addition to the product line of TERRECON (formerly Rubbersidewalks Inc.), which also makes a lighter gray paver from all-white bale wrap recycled from New York state farms.

"The evolution of products that can be made with recycled agricultural plastics continues to create incentives for farmers to recycle more and more of their farm plastics," Levitan says.

RAPP also works with farm, nursery and greenhouse business operators to recycle rigid plastics such as drums for agricultural soaps and liquids, pesticide containers, and nursery pots and trays.

RAPP's new how-to training video will play in the Cornell Center building throughout the 300-acre show that attracts more than 600 exhibitors and 70,000 farmers from all over the United States and Canada.

The Empire Farm Days agricultural showcase also includes DairyProfit and Equine Center seminars; live animals; farm safety and family life displays and activities; 600-plus representatives of agricultural institutions and organizations; and GPS-equipped and compact tractor and ATV test drives.

For more details, contact Empire Farm Days Manager Melanie Wickham at 877-697-7837 or mwickham@empirefarmdays.com.