GETTING RID OF PESTICIDES THE TDA WAY (10/27/2020)

AUSTIN- The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service joined forces Wednesday, October 21 to host a Pesticide Waste Collection and Pesticide Container Recycling event in Lubbock, Texas. This free, public event allowed agriculture producers to safely dispose of unwanted pesticides and pesticide containers.

Funded by a grant of $400,000 from TDA, the agriculture pesticide waste collection event was a huge success. Approximately 274,521 pounds of unwanted agriculture pesticides were collected.

“This pesticide disposal event was the busiest, biggest and best we’ve had yet,” Commissioner Miller said. “These events continue to increase in size and have been a huge success. A big thank you to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service for holding these events in conjunction with TDA.”

Long-term storage of pesticides can lead to the deterioration of pesticide containers, and possible environmental damage due to leaking containers on the farm and into ground waters.

“Pesticide safety is a top priority at the Texas Department of Agriculture,” Commissioner Miller said. “These disposal events give folks the opportunity to get rid of pesticides in the safest way possible and I look forward to hosting more in the future.”

TDA and Texas A&M AgriLife hosted a similar disposal event in Wharton County last December, the first such event since 2011 and again June 13 in Coryell County and November 6 in Hildalgo County.

For more information on pesticides, you can check out the TDA Pesticide website at http://ow.ly/lPR630mOF3s


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