If you’ve ever driven past a farm or stood in a grocery store produce aisle, you’ve likely encountered agricultural plastic—thin, stretchy, sometimes translucent plastic that keeps crops warm, controls weeds, or protects harvested goods from rot. What you might not realize is that most of this plastic is single-use, and once it’s served its purpose, it often ends up burned in open fields, buried in landfills, or dumped in waterways. For years, farmers and recycling experts have grappled with how to process this plastic without it contaminating soil or adding to overflowing waste sites. As a supplier of plastic granulator machines, I get asked this question at least once a week: “Can your granulators actually handle agricultural plastic?” The short answer is yes—but it’s not as simple as plugging a machine in and tossing any old farm plastic into the hopper. Agricultural plastic has unique quirks that demand a specific kind of equipment, and over the 12 years I’ve been in this business, I’ve worked with small family farms and large commercial recycling operations to figure out how to make this process work. Plasic Granulator Machines
First, let’s break down what makes agricultural plastic different from other recyclable plastics like water bottles or grocery bags. Most agricultural plastic is low-density polyethylene (LDPE) or linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE), but it’s not pure. When it’s left in fields, it picks up dirt, crop residue, fertilizer, pesticides, and even small rocks. For example, greenhouse plastic that’s been hanging for a growing season will have bits of tomato vine or corn stalk stuck in its folds, and silage wrap—the thick plastic that covers animal feed—will have fermented grain clumps and manure residue. That contamination is a big problem. Regular plastic granulators are built to process clean, consistent plastic scrap; they’ll jam if you toss in dirty agricultural plastic, because the dirt can clog the cutting blades or clog the screens that separate small plastic particles from larger ones. Early on, we tried selling standard granulators to farms, and we got so many calls about broken machines that we had to go back to the drawing board.
The key to making granulators work for agricultural plastic is building them to handle that inherent mess. Over time, we modified our design to include two pre-processing steps built right into the granulator line: a washing section and a dry section that come before the main cutting chamber. When agricultural plastic comes into our facility (or a farm’s workshop), the first step is to load it onto a conveyor belt that moves through a series of high-pressure water jets and rotating brushes. These brushes scrub off caked-on dirt, and the water carries away loose crop residue. Then the plastic moves through a centrifugal dryer that spins at 3,000 RPM to shake off excess water—because wet plastic will clump together in the granulator chamber, just like wet laundry in a dryer. This pre-processing step isn’t extra fluff; it’s non-negotiable. We recently worked with a 500-acre vegetable farm in central California that was paying $15,000 a year to have their greenhouse plastic hauled to a landfill. They invested in a small, in-line granulator system with pre-wash and dry, and within six months, they were producing 12 tons of clean, pelletized plastic every quarter that they sold to a local recycling plant for $220 a ton. That’s $26,400 a year in revenue they were throwing away before.
Another big challenge with agricultural plastic is its thickness. Some silage wrap is just 20 microns thin, like a very flimsy trash bag, while other types of mulch film are 100 microns thick, almost as thick as a sandwich bag. Regular granulators have fixed blade spacing that works for only one type of plastic thickness. If you run a thin film through a granulator designed for thick pipe plastic, it will wrap around the blades and jam, turning a 10-minute job into a hour-long headache. We solved this by making our granulators with adjustable gap settings between the rotating and stationary blades. For thin mulch film, we set the gap to half a millimeter, so the blades snip it into small, uniform pieces without wrapping. For thicker silage wrap or plastic that’s been shredded from old irrigation pipes, we widen the gap to 2 millimeters, so the blades can cut through the tougher material without slowing down. We also use high-carbon steel blades instead of the standard mild steel used in regular granulators—agricultural plastic can have tiny rocks that wear down blades quickly, and high-carbon steel holds an edge three times longer. A customer in Iowa that processes 20 tons of silage plastic a month told us their old granulator blades needed replacement every 30 days, but with our blades, they only change them every 90 days. That cuts their monthly maintenance costs by 60%.
I know what some critics might say: “Even if you granulate agricultural plastic, it’s so contaminated that the pellets are only good for low-grade products like garden hoses or park benches, not new food containers.” That’s true, but that’s not the point. The agricultural plastic industry’s biggest win right now isn’t making food-grade plastic—it’s keeping it out of landfills and fields. Right now, only about 10% of agricultural plastic in the U.S. is recycled; the rest is burned or buried. When you burn agricultural plastic, it releases dioxins and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that pollute the air in rural communities, where many families live within a mile of field burning sites. When you bury it, it takes up to 500 years to decompose, and the chemicals from the plastic leach into the soil, killing beneficial microbes that crops need to grow. By granulating agricultural plastic into pellets, you keep that material in circulation, so it doesn’t become waste. Those pellets might be used to make low-grade plastic products, but that’s still better than them being burned or buried.
I’ve also seen granulators make a difference for small-scale farmers who don’t have access to big recycling infrastructure. A lot of small family farms can’t afford to send their plastic to a commercial recycling plant, because the transportation cost is higher than the value of the plastic. We designed a compact, mobile granulator that’s mounted on a trailer, so a farmer can drive it right to their field or storage yard. It has a 5-horsepower motor that runs on standard 220-volt farm power, no need for industrial three-phase power. The whole system only takes up 10 square meters of space, so it fits in a farm’s equipment shed. Last year, we sold one to a corn and soy farmer in Illinois who processes his own mulch plastic and the plastic bags that his seed corn comes in. He told me that before he had the mobile granulator, he was loading 500-pound bales of plastic onto a truck and driving 2 hours to the nearest recycling center, which would only take the plastic if it was sorted and clean. Now, he processes 8 tons of plastic a year into pellets that he sells to a local plastic manufacturer that makes fencing for pastures. “It’s not a huge income,” he said, “but it covers the cost of my farm’s seed bags every year, and I don’t have to haul plastic across the state anymore. That peace of mind is worth more than the money.”
Of course, granulators aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution. There are still types of agricultural plastic that are hard to process, like plastic that’s been treated with certain pesticides that leave toxic residues. Some recycling plants won’t accept pellets made from that plastic, because they worry it will contaminate their entire batch. But that’s why we work with every customer to test their specific plastic before they buy a granulator. We take a small sample of their plastic, run it through our test lab’s granulator, and check the cleanliness of the resulting pellets. If the plastic has high levels of toxic residue, we adjust the washing process to remove as much of it as possible, or we help them find a recycling plant that specializes in that type of plastic. We also train farmers and farm workers on how to sort their plastic before processing, because mixing different types of plastic or plastic with non-plastic items like string or metal staples can ruin the entire batch of pellets.
Over the past five years, I’ve watched the demand for agricultural plastic granulators grow, and it’s not just from farmers. Major agricultural companies and government agencies are starting to invest in plastic recycling because they’re under pressure to reduce waste. Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $200 million program to help farmers purchase recycling equipment, including granulators, for agricultural plastic. That’s led to a 40% increase in our sales of agricultural granulators since 2021. I think that number will keep going up, because more people are realizing that recycling agricultural plastic isn’t just good for the environment—it’s good for farmers’ bottom lines.
But here’s the thing: granulators aren’t a silver bullet. They’re a tool that, when used correctly, can turn a waste product into a valuable material. But it takes care—proper pre-processing, sorting, and maintenance. I’ve seen farms buy cheap granulators online, use them without washing their plastic, and then blame the granulator when it breaks six months later. That’s why we don’t just sell machines—we provide full training, on-site support, and a 24/7 customer service line for anyone who runs into a problem. Last month, a farm in Texas had a jammed granulator on a Saturday night, and our technician was on the road within an hour to help them fix it. That’s the kind of support that makes the difference between a working granulator and a doorstop.
At the end of the day, the question isn’t “Can plastic granulators be used in agricultural plastic recycling?” The answer is a resounding yes—when they’re built for the job, used correctly, and paired with the right pre-processing steps. Agricultural plastic is a huge waste stream, but it’s also a resource that, when processed properly, can be reused instead of discarded. If you’re a farmer, a recycling operator, or anyone working in the agricultural plastic space, and you want to learn more about how granulators can work for your operation, we’re here to help. We can test your plastic, walk you through our machine options, and help you build a system that fits your needs and your budget. Don’t let your agricultural plastic go to waste—let’s turn it into something useful.
Metal Briquetting Machines References
- Thompson, R. C., et al. (2009). Lost at Sea: Where Is All the Plastic? Science, 325(5944), 1128–1129.
- USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey (2022). Agricultural Plastic Use and Waste Management Practices on U.S. Crop Farms. U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- Raj, A., et al. (2020). Recycling of Agricultural Plastic Wastes: Challenges and Opportunities. Journal of Cleaner Production, 272, 122689.
- European Plastic Waste Strategy (2021). Agricultural Plastic Recycling Targets and Implementation Guidelines. European Commission.
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