Container Minimization and Reuse

Abstract

The agricultural chemicals industry shares with its customers, and with state and Federal regulators, a deep concern about the pesticide container disposal problem. Since 1984, a task force of the National Agricultural Chemicals Association (NACA)--the industry's trade association--has been working aggressively to devise and promote solutions to this problem. The NACA Container Management Task Force shares with the EPA a conviction that the best way to attack the problem is by source reduction--by minimizing the burden placed on the environment by the use of single trip, non-refillable, containers for our products. Indeed, source reduction resides atop NACA's container management program hierarchy (Figure 1). There is no single "best" approach to source reduction. Thus the industry is exploring several complementary avenues. Lightweight Containers. Perhaps the most obvious approach is the "lightweighting" of existing containers; for example, reducing the amount of plastic used in jugs, the paper in cartons, etc.. This approach