Barossa’s drumMUSTER improves with age

Barossa Valley farmers and winemakers no longer need to wait to recycle their empty and clean agvet chemical containers, after some recent changes to the local drumMUSTER program.

For the past 13 years, the Barossa Council has held two drumMUSTER collection days a year to service more than 750 grape growers who supply 200 wineries.

But thanks to new flexible arrangements to the drumMUSTER site at Nuri Dump, growers can now drop off their drums five and half days a week instead of twice a year.

South Australia drumMUSTER Consultant David Jesse said the new collection site will be a great asset to local growers.

“Drums can now be delivered to the Transpacific Transfer Station on Pine Drive in Nuriootpa during normal opening hours,” he said. “This site is well known to local farmers as they have utilised it for disposal of other waste.”

Jesse said local growers are no strangers to recycling their chemical containers.

Since 1989, the Barossa Council has been collecting drums for farmers, 10 years before drumMUSTER was introduced in 1999.

“Since drumMUSTER has been serving the region, more than 84,000 drums have been collected,” Jesse said.

“That represents more than 105 tonnes of material recycled into new things again.”

On top of this, drumMUSTER has collected another 21 million drums nationwide, preventing 26,000 tonnes of waste from going to landfill.

Growers can drop off their drums at the site during normal opening times, 8 am-3 pm Monday to Friday and 8-11.30 am on Saturday.