Medway Pesticide Amnesty

Many farms have out of date or unwanted chemicals in store, which can be costly and difficult to dispose of safely. If stored inappropriately and over a prolonged period, containers can degrade and leach their contents. Unsafe disposal and leakage cause serious pollution in our waterways, affecting insects and other wildlife. Between January and March 2020, the Medway Valley Countryside Partnership, with the support of the National Farmers Union and a range of funders, ran a Pesticide Amnesty to collect and dispose of over 3,500 litres of out-of-date or illegal chemicals across the Medway catchment, which covers 1,857 km2 of Surrey, Kent and East Sussex.

• Cost: £25,000

• Farms involved: 75

• Area covered: 1,857 km2

• Litres of chemicals collected: Over 3,500

Confidentialilty, funding and the involvement of landowners and their representatives made this initiative a successful one.

By Andrea Griffiths of the Medway Valley Countryside Partnership
The Medway Valley Countryside Partnership is acutely aware of the rapid decline in farmland birds and beneficial insects, as well as the need for clean water as the basis for a healthy environment. This project offered free, anonymous collections from a specialist contractor for up to 50 litres of chemical per working farm across the catchment. 75 individual farms registered for the scheme and many farmers paid to have extra chemicals above the capped amount collected.