Peninsula All Media Chief Reporter Wang Yongduan
It has to be said that the consciousness of vegetable farmer Zhao Shuanglin in disposing of agricultural film has increased compared with previous years.
Zhao Shuanglin, a 53-year-old farmer in Yifengdian Township, Jimo District, has grown crops and vegetables for most of his life, and has been using agricultural film on a large scale since 10 years ago. He has the impression that in the early years, the mulch used to grow potatoes and peanuts was almost randomly buried in the ground, and now he not only cleans the mulch but also sells it.
Zhao Shuanglin's change comes from the "positive incentives" and "reverse constraints" behind a number of "decrees" related to agricultural film issued and implemented by multiple departments. From districts and cities to towns and towns to villages, Qingdao, a coastal city, has launched an agricultural film attack, and the "city without waste" has begun to appear. As early as 6 years ago, this newspaper published an article "Don't let 'waste mulch' become 'Voldemort'".
Agricultural film is commonly used in agricultural planting
From "victimization" to "self-awareness"
"My farmland has been covered with mulch for five or six years. Zhao Shuanglin said, "Later, when I was ploughing in the spring, I found that there were more and more mulch films after turning the soil, and the land pollution was getting heavier and heavier, and the harvest was not as good as one year." ”
"Crops can't take root, especially vegetables, the leaves are yellow and don't grow much. He added.
An elderly man cleans up mulch in a vegetable patch
When he realized the dangers of "agricultural film pollution", in the winter of 2018, he had to hire someone to plow the mulch with machinery to pick up the mulch. In this way, the large tractor pulls the plough rake in front of the deep turn, three people hold a small rake in the back to hug the ploughed plastic film to one side, and the two of them will concentrate on one side of the plastic film together.
The whole set of procedures carried out by 6 people at the same time did not completely solve the contamination of the mulch film. After completing the first deep ploughing of the whole land, the tractor with a large rake has to re-plow the plot and pick it up repeatedly, so that the plastic film can be basically eliminated. After the whole set of procedures, Zhao Shuanglin spent more than 1,500 yuan a day on hiring people.
Agricultural film buyers clean up the mulch film
"More than 4 acres of farmland, processed all day. Zhao Shuanglin said that once the agricultural film is buried in the soil, it "can't rot" for six or seven years, and even ten or eight years will still be in the ground. After experiencing this "film damage", starting in 2019, whether he is planting crops or vegetables, he has to clean up the agricultural film, even if it is buried by the soil, he must use a rake and plow to turn it out and take it away, and then sell it when the agricultural film is concentrated to a certain extent.
This spring, he planted 2 acres of open-air spring cabbage with plastic film, and when the spring cabbage grows in the warm sun, the mulch covering the cabbage needs to be torn off. On April 15, he and his family first dragged the mulch to the side of the cabbage in the cabbage field, and then used a sharp knife to cut the mulch film more than 50 meters long, and then the couple struggled to pull out the mulch on both sides of the plot.
"After the mulch film is pulled out, there will be a small amount of residue in the vegetable field. Zhao Shuanglin said that the residual film is cleaned after the cabbage is harvested, so that it is basically cleaned up. After cleaning the mulch in the cabbage field, he carried the mulch film onto a farm tricycle and transported it home.
Agricultural film buyer (front) cleans up mulch film
Zhao Shuanglin said that he used about 15 catties of mulch for these 2 acres of open-air cabbage. He will plant other crops when the cabbage is harvested, and 30 catties of mulch will be used for these 2 acres of land in 1 year, together with the other 3 acres of farmland he leased, 70 catties of mulch film alone will be needed throughout the year. The fact is that during the planting process, other agricultural films such as drip irrigation and vegetable seedling bags will also be produced. 5 acres of farmland, no less than 150 catties of agricultural film throughout the year.
Mulch film is commonly used in vegetable cultivation
"The 150 kilograms of agricultural film produced every year, if not cleaned, will be buried in the ground year after year, which will cause great damage to crops and soil. He said that it was based on this that he decided to spend money, time and effort to clean up the agricultural film.
Behind 35,900 tons of agricultural film
1 mu of farmland with two crops planted in one year produces 30 catties of agricultural film every year, which is not groundless.
Zhang Puke, a potato grower in Jiaozhou City, said that he rented land to plant 3 acres of potatoes, and every year when the potatoes are put into the soil, they must be covered with mulch, and then they will be watered with drip irrigation densely arranged in the vegetable field, and when the potatoes are harvested, these black drip irrigation will be invalidated, and the drip irrigation and mulch film per mu will not be less than 30 catties.
Agricultural film buyers clean up the mulch film
"If the agricultural film and drip irrigation are not cleaned thoroughly, the soil will be polluted and the crops will be planted with serious harm. "Whether it is a crop or a vegetable, the roots are not deep, the water is not thorough, and the crops either do not grow or have yellow leaves until they die." ”
A large vegetable grower in Laixi City told Peninsula All Media reporters that the 130 acres of vegetable land he leased produces about 4,000 catties of agricultural film every year.
"The 4,000 catties of agricultural film are only on the ridges, not including the plastic film that temporarily supports the vegetable greenhouse. The grower said that if these agricultural films were buried in the ground year after year, it would be a disaster for vegetable cultivation. For this reason, after the vegetables are harvested, he will hire someone to pick up the mulch film first, and then turn out the remaining mulch film in the soil after deep ploughing, and then pick it up.
Although Qingdao is a coastal city, it is also a large agricultural city. Qingdao's Pingdu, Laixi, Jiaozhou and parts of the West Coast New Area have huge agricultural planting areas. Over the years, vegetables such as green radish, carrots, cabbage, celery, potatoes, broccoli, cucumbers, coriander, leeks, and peppers grown in these regions have not only supplied the domestic market, but also exported to many parts of the world. In addition to vegetables, sweet potatoes, purple potatoes and peanuts are also one of the key crops planted in the above regions. In particular, crops such as vegetables and peanuts are inseparable from agricultural film and mulch film in the planting process.
Agricultural film buyers are loading
According to data released by the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, the Bureau of Statistics, and the Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in December 2020, the amount of plastic film used in Qingdao in 2017 was 7,500 tons. This figure changed in the following years as the process of agriculture progressed. In May 2023, the latest data released by the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment showed that Qingdao covered an area of 2.12 million mu of crop mulch film, and the amount of agricultural film used reached 35,900 tons, including mulch film and shed film.
"Sweeping the snow in front of the door"
As early as before the release of the data in 2023, behind the huge figure of rising agricultural film consumption in Qingdao, it has attracted attention at all levels.
On November 1, 2020, the "Interim Measures for the Management of Agricultural Waste in Qingdao" came into force. The measures stipulate that the agricultural and rural departments are responsible for guiding the recycling and disposal of agricultural wastes, encouraging and guiding relevant units and other producers, operators and users to collect, store, transport, utilize and dispose of agricultural wastes in accordance with the law; For waste agricultural film, the user is responsible for collecting and sorting it out and transporting it to the recycling network or domestic garbage recycling point.
Farmers are cleaning up mulch
In September 2022, the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued a notice on the "Implementation Plan for the Construction of Qingdao Waste Agricultural Film Recycling, Storage, Transportation and Comprehensive Utilization Network". The West Coast, Jimo, Jiaozhou, Pingdu, and Laixi are required to set up more than one qualified district and municipal recycling center, determine at least one qualified waste agricultural film recycling and treatment enterprise, and set up more than one recycling site in the agricultural town street according to the amount of agricultural film used and recycled.
The direction of tackling the fortification was determined, and all districts and cities declared war on "agricultural film", making Qingdao, which is both a "coastal city" and an "agricultural city", a "zero-waste city".
"Agricultural market" and "no waste" are not simple slogans. Taking Pingdu City as an example, the Pingdu Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has issued a special notice on the recycling and disposal of waste agricultural film, and will process more than 1,000 tons of waste agricultural film every year in 2022~2024.
How to recycle 1,000 tons of waste agricultural film scattered in farmland and vegetable fields? Pingdu City assigns tasks to various towns and streets according to the dense distribution area of agricultural films, and at the same time allocates funds to encourage the implementation of towns and streets. Taking Jiudian Town as an example, the task volume of pesticide packaging waste, waste agricultural film and reflective film in the town is 110 tons, while Fengtai Street is 17 tons.
Zhenjie received the task, but it was not the source of the mulch film to be recycled. Taking Dazeshan Town as an example, Dazeshan Town has set up a plastic film recycling point in Shangjia Village, which is responsible for the plastic film recycling of dozens of surrounding villages.
A village cadre in Shangjia Village told Peninsula All Media reporters that through publicity and supervision in recent years, the awareness of local villagers to use agricultural film to clean up agricultural film has increased significantly.
"Seven or eight years ago, the ground was full of agricultural film, and when the wind blew, it flew everywhere and hung on the trees and grass, which was very eye-catching. The village cadre said that the town has carried out a special clean-up of the agricultural film in the farmland, and asked the farmers to clean up the agricultural film after using it.
After years of supervision, the effect is visible on the ground. Geng Chao, a farmer, told the Peninsula all-media reporter that many years ago, no one picked up the agricultural film, and now the agricultural film in the farmland can be taken away easily, and those who can't be taken away will go back to clean up, "Whoever is responsible for the farmland will sweep the snow in front of the door."
Turn trash into treasure
Another farmer said that in addition to habit, the reluctance to clean up agricultural film in the past was also the reason why it was difficult to sell. Since the local collection point has been set up, they can sell the agricultural film to the recycling point nearby, and the collection point will regularly send people to the village to buy it in the villages that are farther away from the recycling point.
Although the "self-sweeping snow in front of the door" has eliminated the agricultural film to a large extent, it is often not completely cleaned of the agricultural film. The village cadre from Shangjia Village said that in order to thoroughly clean up the agricultural film, the recycling point will send people to the key areas where the agricultural film is used to pick it up.
"At our recycling site, we employ three people to go into the farmland all year round to clean up the agricultural film. "It's not uncommon to drive a farm truck into the village, climb the mountain with a bag on your back, and bend over to pick it up." ”
In the past three months, the village has recycled and picked up more than 5 tons of agricultural film. The collected and brought back films will be sorted in the village, and a special recycling company will go to collect them.
Agricultural film is widely recycled at the grassroots level
Qingdao Guanjia Environmental Protection Co., Ltd. is a municipal center for waste agricultural film recycling established in Pingdu City. The relevant person in charge of the company told reporters that their company is responsible for the recycling of agricultural film in Dongge Street, Dazeshan Town, Mingcun Town, Jiudian Town, Xinhe Town and other streets and towns. When the agricultural film recycling points in these towns and villages have collected the agricultural film, their company sends vehicles to transport the agricultural film from each recycling point back to the company, and then turns the agricultural film into treasure.
"Pingdu has formed a three-level recycling system at the village, town and city levels. The person in charge of Guanjia said.
The fact is that in recent years, Qingdao has established more than 10 recycling and transfer centers in agriculture-related areas and cities, and 187 recycling stations have been set up in 82 agriculture-related towns and streets, realizing the use, recycling and disposal management of agricultural films.
Civil power
The government attaches great importance to it and becomes the driving force for the people's activities and actions.
Sun Jinpu is a farmer in Renzhao Township, Pingdu City, and in the past, he used to grow crops as well as vegetables. Like Zhao Shuanglin, he had no experience in the early years, and he also buried the mulch film in the ground, and later he had to dig deep to remove it.
An elderly man cleans up mulch in a vegetable patch
"Potatoes, peanuts, these have to be mulched. Sun Jinpu said, "If the mulch film is not cleaned up and disposed of for three consecutive years, it will be placed in the ground and flooded, which will seriously affect the harvest." ”
Later, after the collection point was set up in the local area, Sun Jinpu went to Renzhao and some vegetable planting areas in Jimo District to pick up agricultural film, and sold it to the recycling point or agricultural film purchasing company, which could be sold for 150 or 60 yuan a day.
"There are some other people who pick up agricultural film and sell it. Sun Jinpu said that when there were fewer and fewer agricultural films on the farmland and the edge of the field, he not only "picked up" the experience, but also found business opportunities: four or five cents could be earned behind each catty of agricultural film.
Agricultural film buyers clean up the mulch film
Later, he and his wife drove a farm truck to buy mulch in the countryside of Renzhao Township, and then their wheels drove to the fields, waiting for the farmer to pull the mulch out of their farmland and sell it to him on the spot.
Like Sun Jinpu, Chang of Renzhao Town has also shifted the pace of purchasing agricultural film from the countryside to the land in recent years. In the warm sun of early spring, Chang drove a small truck through a vegetable planting area in Jimo, and when he came to a large farmland, he found an old man struggling to drag the mulch.
"Do you sell these mulch films?" asked the old man while standing on the side of the road after parking.
"The agricultural film is wasted, useless, and it is sold when it is pulled out. The old man said.
Agricultural film buyers drag mulch film
Chang, who was standing at the edge of the field, estimated the vegetable field in front of him: "You have to have 7 acres of land, and you will be given 15 yuan for the agricultural film of one acre, will you sell it?"
"Sell it. The old man responded to Chang, "You wait, wait for me to pull out all the mulch." ”
Looking at the sweat on the old man's face and his clothes wet with water droplets on the mulch, Chang and his wife stepped forward to pull up the mulch with the old man. After a while, Chang and his wife's clothes were not only covered with mud, but also wet with dewdrops. When dragging hundreds of catties of mulch film to the ground, Chang was already sweating like rain. He picked up a large pile of mulch from the ground, stepped over the ravines and grass, and walked towards the pickup truck parked on the road. He riveted his feet and threw the mulch in his arms into the carriage.
When he threw all the mulch film into the car, he handed 105 yuan in cash to the old man. At this time, the old man put the money in his trouser pocket, and he and his wife got into the car and drove to another farmland.
■News link
Six years ago, this newspaper published an article calling for not letting "waste mulch" become "Voldemort"
On July 10, 2018, the Peninsula Metropolis Daily reported on the flooding of farmland and accumulated waste mulch film in Qingdao at that time with the title of "Waste Mulch Film, How to Remain the Same as "Voldemort"". After that, this newspaper reported that some agricultural cities paid attention to it, and conducted a survey on the remaining agricultural film in the farmland.
The July 10, 2018 issue of Peninsula Metropolis took the lead in calling for farmland to be saved
According to the report at the time, in recent years, Lao Sun, a farmer in Laixi City, felt that "the farmland is not full of nutrients", so he asked agricultural experts to go into the farmland to investigate the cause, only to find that it was the agricultural film that accumulated under the soil layer all year round to prevent the growth of the root system. In rural areas such as Laixi, Pingdu, and Yantai, this kind of doubt is not unique. Obviously, the mulch film used in the early years to promote agricultural income has evolved into a "white ground demon". The relevant person in charge of the Environmental Remediation Research Office of the Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences pointed out that to eliminate and curb the "white pollution" of farmland, in addition to the strict implementation of the new standards for plastic film by manufacturers, a plastic film recycling system should be established in various places.
In September 2022, the Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Affairs issued a notice on the "Implementation Plan for the Construction of Qingdao Waste Film Recycling, Storage, Transportation and Comprehensive Utilization Network", implementing the "positive incentives" and "reverse constraints" for the use of agricultural film, so that "waste plastic film" has local laws and regulations to follow, and a farmland defense war has begun, and Qingdao has begun to move towards a "waste-free city".