Disposal of Excess Pesticide-Treated Seed

Disposal of treated seed is a critical step in the stewardship of seed treatment products and protecting people, animals, and the environment. Unwanted treated seeds contain pesticides and must be handled according to the pesticide characterization and the applicative federal, state, and local regulations. The best style to deal with the disposal of treated seed is to minimize the corporeality that needs to be discarded. Do not use treated seed for food, feed, or oil product.

treated seed

Before disposing of treated seed, read and follow the pesticide characterization and the purse (or seed) tag. If you still have questions, contact the pesticide manufacturer. Consult with your state and local authorities to ensure compliance with advisable regulations.  Detect contact information for land and territory pesticide regulatory agencies hither.

Small Quantities of Pesticide-Treated Seed

The best fashion to dispose of a small quantity of leftover seed that has been treated with a pesticide is to plant information technology in dormant or other not-cropped areas of the farm. If in that location is an choice for storage and futurity planting, return the excess seed to its original container.

Whether or not the seed is beingness planted in a fallow or not-cropped surface area or as potential wildlife habitat, it is of import to use the aforementioned practices and precautions that you would employ when planting treated seeds to produce a ingather:

  1. Use an agronomically acceptable seeding charge per unit, using normal practices for that crop (for case, local planting dates and soil temperatures) as recommended by your county Extension agent.
  2. Plant treated seed at a depth greater than 1 inch (ii.five cm). If the seed is circulate on the soil surface, comprise it immediately.
  3. Immediately embrace small quantities of treated seed that are spilled during loading and in areas such as row ends, and found seed away from bodies of water. Collect larger quantities of spilled seed. Treated seed left on the surface tin can be harmful to wildlife.
  4. Unless restricted by label statements, backlog treated seed may exist double planted in the plow rows at the end of the field or within a portion of the field.

Large Quantities of Pesticide-Treated Seed

If the quantity of seed for disposal is larger than can be planted or is non suitable for planting (eastward.g., reduced germination), there are a diverseness of industries that may be able to dispose of large quantities of treated seed. However, a definitive answer on whether a municipal landfill, power constitute, cement kiln, waste management facility or ethanol plant will have seed treated with a particular pesticide tin only exist obtained by contacting the specific facility.

1. Disposal in an Approved Municipal Landfill

Disposal in approved municipal landfills is permitted in some states. Withal, landfill disposal is costly and usually non applied for big volumes of treated seed; and permits may be required.

If landfill disposal is the selected option, seed treated with pesticides may be handled as normal solid waste material or every bit hazardous waste product, depending on the active ingredient. Check the condition of each active ingredient regarding its waste classification status before committing to a disposal process.

The contacts for both solid and hazardous waste disposal programs and environmental agencies in each state may be found on the U.S. EPA website.

2. Use as a Fuel Source for Power Plants or Cement Kilns

There are a variety of power plants that use culling fuels.  At this link, you can access an upward-to-appointment list of power plants, including those that use biomass, municipal solid waste product or non-fossil waste as an alternative fuel.

3. High-Temperature Incineration past a Waste product Direction Facility

Contact the waste product management facility to determine if information technology can take treated seed. Note that this is likely to be an expensive pick.

4. Fermentation in an Booze-Producing Process at an Ethanol Plant

Some ethanol plants may exist able to use treated seeds in the fermentation process. Excess treated seed may be used for ethanol production just if (a) by-products (distillers' grains, mash, etc.) are not used for livestock feed and (b) no measurable residues of pesticide remain in ethanol by-products that are used in agronomic do. Still, some treated seed tin can inhibit the fermentation procedure at certain rates and therefore pre-testing on a small-scale scale is critical.

In addition, some ethanol plants may be able to apply treated seed every bit an alternating power source.

Ethanol Producer Magazine publishes the following links to a map and lists of ethanol plants in the US and Canada:

  • List of ethanol plants in the U.s.a.
  • Listing of ethanol plants in Canada
  • U.S. & Canada Fuel Ethanol Plant Map

Disposal of Numberless that Independent Treated Seed

Used seed numberless and containers may contain treated seed dust or a few treated seeds.  Always check state and local regulations prior to disposing of bags that contained treated seed. Some companies may accept container return policies.

In the absenteeism of specific regulations:

  • Used treated seed numberless may be burned every bit a fuel for power or industrial heat generation.
  • Used bags may exist incinerated either in a permitted chancy waste matter incinerator or municipal solid waste incinerator with appropriate air emissions control equipment.
  • Landfills may be used as a last resort and only in a lined landfill with leachate collection and treatment – at a minimum, a Subtitle D municipal solid waste material landfill.

Do not recycle used seed bags that independent treated seed.

Disposal of Rinse Water from Seed Treatment & Planting Equipment

Minimize rinse water – launder out equipment only when necessary. Never pour rinse h2o onto the soil, groundwater, surface water, or septic systems. Re-utilise rinse water from seed handling equipment to dilute the next batch of formulation, but only if using the aforementioned seed treatment recipe. Factor in the potential for increased concentration of agile ingredient, if significant amounts of rinse water are used. Excess rinse water from seed treatment or planting equipment may exist applied to a crop or site for which the active ingredient is registered if it will not outcome in an practical concentration in a higher place the labeled charge per unit (from The Guide to Seed Treatment Stewardship).

What Non to Exercise with Pesticide-Treated Seed or By-Products

  1. Composting is NEVER recommended for pesticide-treated seed.
  2. Spreading and incorporating (by disking, etc.) at higher-than-normal seeding rates is NEVER recommended for treated seed, fifty-fifty with proper incorporation (soil coverage).  Contact the pesticide manufacturer(s) to determine if spreading and incorporating may be possible under the specific set of circumstances (active ingredients, pesticide and seed rates, previous and future crops, etc.).
  3. NEVER burn pesticide-treated seed in an open pit or in a woods or corn stove used in the home or shop, for whatsoever purpose (heating, cooking, etc.)  The hazards and risks from burning pesticide-treated seed in this way are unknown.

For more information: The International Seed Federation has information on how to minimize the product of, and disposal of, excess treated seed. Additionally, the American Seed Trade Association and CropLife America have published "The Guide to Seed Handling Stewardship," that features standards, guidelines, a glossary and acronym primal, and links to other of import sources of information for applicators and farmers.