LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Proposals for ‘Step 3’ in fighting hay-wrap litter scourge on area roadways

Proposals for ‘Step 3’ in fighting hay-wrap litter scourge on area roadways

Re: Janet Taber’s letter to the editor that suggested a “Step 2” in battling the scourge of plastic-netting hay wrap littering the roadsides (“Step 2 for net-wrap scourge: Pick up what’s already there,” Times, Feb. 28). Here are some suggestions for Step 3:
• Maybe an FFA group would take it on as a project to clean up the plastic netting from highways or look into ways to recycle the stuff. One of my grandsons in Joplin is majoring in agriculture, and I asked him to check with his ag teacher to see if they could come up with a project to recycle it somehow.
• Someone – MoDOT, the sale barn, the county commissioners, the businesses that sell hay wrap – could set up a designated place where the hay wrap could be left for proper disposal.
• Another step might be getting the companies that make the plastic-netting hay wrap to develop some kind of material that is biodegradable.
This stuff is a real problem. We drive from Protem to Ava once a week, and last week between the turnoff from Highway 95 onto Highway 5 up to Lakey’s Hay and Feed south of Ava, I counted 54 wads of hay wrap! And that was just the ones I could see. There are places where the bank drops down from the road, and you can’t see what’s there.  

Joanne Adel
Protem

Editor’s note: This letter was adapted from a phone call from the reader, who also asked us to remind readers that the Missouri Department of Natural Resources says it’s illegal to burn the plastic-netting hay wrap and the only acceptable way to dispose of it is to get it into landfills.