The Regional Government has already implemented an agricultural plastic collection system on the island of São Jorge, providing several containers throughout the two municipalities of that island. This measure complies with the decision taken by the Council of the Government in January as part of the Government's statutory visit to São Jorge.
 
The Regional Directorate for Agriculture has purchased 10 containers with capacity of 2 cubic meters each, an investment of about 10 thousand Euros. They were strategically placed along the island of São Jorge, especially near livestock farms and water supply points.
 
With the implementation of this system for collecting agricultural plastics, namely fertiliser bags, feed packages and silage plastic wraps, the Regional Government intends to fully respond to the demands of local agricultural associations and authorities, thus contributing to the improvement of the quality of life and the environment on this island.
 
The success of this measure will largely depend on farmers’ behaviour and good practices as it is the responsibility of waste producers to separate them at source and dispose of them in a correct manner, so as to promote their recovery.
 
The implementation of this agricultural plastic collection system will be complemented by frequent environmental awareness-raising actions among farmers to promote the correct sorting of agricultural waste.
 
So far, 2 tonnes of agricultural waste have been collected and delivered at São Jorge Waste Processing Centre.