Pesticide amnesty held to protect environment

More than 840 litres of harmful chemicals were collected from farms

A pesticide amnesty has taken place across Devon and Cornwall to help protect the environment, South West Water has said.

It said more than 840 litres of harmful chemicals were collected from farms by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Westcountry Rivers Trust.

The work, which was funded by the water company, encouraged the amnesty of unwanted, outdated or banned chemicals to prevent them from accidentally entering the environment.

Carolyn Cadman, South West Water's director for natural resources said the work was important because "one gram of pesticide can be detected many kilometres downstream".

'The right thing'

She said: "Often farmers hang on to outdated pesticides because they don't know what to do with them or just don't get round to disposing of them.

"These old containers can easily crack and lead to accidental spills to the environment."

Further collections are already under way, South West Water added.

Annabel Martin, head of land management at Westcountry Rivers Trust, said the service enabled farmers to "do the right thing" without risk to themselves.

“Since 2016, we have collected and disposed of more than 7.3 tonnes of unwanted pesticides, herbicides and insecticides from 117 farms in our Upstream Thinking catchments in Devon and Cornwall," she said.

"Given the highly mobile nature of these chemicals, it is incredibly important to remove the risk of spills and leaks, even when the river is distant to the farmyard."