To assist farmers and other agricultural and veterinary chemical users in the Queensland and New South Wales regions that have been impacted by the recent floods, Agsafe, in collaboration with the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and the Queensland Department of Environment has organised a ChemClear run to collect damaged or affected chemicals in these regions.
As with other ChemClear campaigns, agricultural chemical holders from disaster declared Local Government Areas in these states simply pre-register their affected chemicals for collection.
This ‘Flood Run’ is a short, sharp campaign to remove agricultural chemical products that have been impacted by the flood and can no longer be used.
This is a free service for both drumMUSTER eligible products and for non-drumMUSTER products thanks to Commonwealth and NSW Government assistance. The campaign has been partly funded by a $100,000 grant from the NSW EPA through the joint Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.
NSW EPA executive director Stephen Beaman said support for the program was part of ongoing work to clean-up flood impacted Northern NSW.
“The recent floods caused widespread devastation across Northern NSW. In some instances, agricultural chemicals, such as fertiliser and pesticides, were moved or damaged by the floodwaters,” Mr Beaman said.
“This ChemClear campaign is designed to enable the safe and secure removal of flood impacted agricultural chemicals from farms and out of rural communities at no cost to people who register, to help reduce any potential environmental impact.”
Agsafe general manager Dominique Doyle said this collection of flood impacted communities will assist in the recovery process following the floods.
“This initiative is one step towards recovering from these floods, and Agsafe is thrilled to partner with NSW EPA to enable the removal of obsolete flood impacted chemicals off farms and out of rural communities.”
ChemClear’s goal is to reduce the quantity of agvet chemicals stored on properties and in businesses across Australia, thereby reducing negative impacts on the environment, people and trade in the future.
Using ChemClear ensures that agvet chemical users will meet their responsibilities and obligations under any Quality Assurance, Farm or Environmental Management program.
ChemClear is delivered by Agsafe on behalf of AgStewardship Australia and its stakeholders CropLife Australia, Animal Medicines Australia Limited, Veterinary Manufacturers and Distributors Association and the National Farmers Federation.
Agsafe’s ChemClear program has helped farmers and growers safely dispose of unused or obsolete agvet chemicals since 2003. During that time almost 800 tonnes of chemical have been removed from rural communities.
If you have customers that have agvet chemicals that are no longer required, have been inherited or become obsolete, then direct them to the ChemClear program.
Collections are scheduled based on the volume of chemical registrations received by region and state across Australia. On average ChemClear undertakes 2–3 state collections and several local regional collections annually. The following state collections have been proposed.
Victoria in late 2022. South Australia in February–March 2023. Western Australia mid-2023 and Queensland in late 2023.
For further information visit www.chemclear.org.au or call Agsafe on 02 6206 6888.
