Waste before the farm gate: options for agriculture, fisheries and forestry
Prepared by RM Consulting Group in collaboration with Rawtec, for AgriFutures Australia. Authors: Isabel Axio, Donna Lucas, Dr Anne-Maree Boland, Clinton Muller, Kat Heinrich and Matt Allan. Publication 23-009.
Summary published
Most waste work starts at the kerb or the factory gate. This one starts earlier, with the plastic, organic and workshop waste generated on farms, boats and in forests up to and including harvest.
Australian agriculture puts an estimated 7,000 tonnes of plastic mulch on the ground every year, covering 35,000 hectares of crop soil. Between 18 and 22% of fruit and vegetables are lost during primary production.
The project ran 47 interviews, built a longlist of more than 70 options, cut it to 64, ran a SWOT on each, shortlisted 14 and assessed four in detail.
Lost each year across six crops
Of plastic mulch used annually
Of Australian vineyards use treated timber posts
Revenue the banana industry could unlock
What the four detailed options showed
Crop losses, crop by crop
Carrots lose 107,000 tonnes a year, 34% of production. Potatoes 104,000 tonnes, 23%. Bananas an estimated 78,000 tonnes that do not meet quality standards. Field tomatoes 33,000 tonnes, 34%. Across six crops the identified loss is 389,000 tonnes a year.
Whole crop purchasing is worth $75 million to bananas alone
If retailers bought the whole crop rather than only the fruit that meets cosmetic standards, the banana industry could unlock $75.2 million. For an average 32 hectare plantation that is about $34,000 a year in additional net revenue. The minimum grower price works out at $0.91 a kilogram for fresh retail and $0.87 for upcycling.
Steel posts already win on whole-of-life cost
Over 30 years per hectare, steel posts cost $1,450 against $1,500 for copper chrome arsenate treated timber, $1,750 for untreated timber in recycled plastic and $2,130 for wood-plastic composite. Steel disposal cost is very low against $294 per hectare for treated timber. The barrier is the upfront price, not the lifetime one.
The scale of the post problem
An estimated 65% of Australian vineyards use treated timber posts and 20% have creosote-treated posts. Only about 12% use metal. An average vineyard generates 245 cubic metres of treated posts over 30 years. A 10 hectare vineyard produces 250 cubic metres, enough to fill more than two buses.
Biodegradable mulch is close but not there
Certified soil biodegradable mulch costs 70 to 300% more upfront, which works out at only $200 per hectare or 9% more across its whole life. It breaks even if the upfront premium narrows to 80%, or if removal costs rise 23%.
Fisheries plastic is the hardest of the four
Multi-material waste, contaminated, a long way from processors and worth little. The report treats extended producer responsibility as the route rather than expecting recycling economics to solve it.
What it recommended
A circular leasing model where the supplier handles installation, maintenance and end of life, plus grants or rebates for the upfront cost. The report suggests banning copper chrome arsenate purchases for new vineyards from 2026, with a mandatory takeback scheme.
Map the target crops and existing upcycling markets, run a trial with the banana industry and major retailers, set up an expression of interest process and draft sample contracts.
Establish demonstration sites and offer rebates or loans for the transition. The cost gap is small enough that seeing it work is likely the binding constraint.
Develop an extended producer responsibility business case, collect volume and location data, and pilot infrastructure upgrades at case study ports.
Post-harvest processing and milling waste are out of scope. The cost conclusions are sensitive to assumptions, and the report says the whole crop purchasing values should not be used to set prices, since growers and retailers need to calculate case by case. Soil biodegradable research was done in a lab replicating best-case conditions. The environmental burden of burning plastic mulch is not in the whole-of-life assessment.
Related reports
Other food and materials work.
The full report includes the SWOT analysis on all 64 options and the detailed assessment of the four shortlisted ones.
Working on something like this?
Most of our projects start with someone inside an organisation who already knows what needs to change and needs the evidence to back it in. If that is you, we would like to hear from you.