At Weterings Machinery, things are buzzing. Special projects are coming in left and right. Rob van den Berg rattles off a few examples, but one in particular stands out.
"For a large English soft-fruit grower, we're building a machine that pulls out the entire strawberry crop in one go," he explains. "With a 4.5-meter-high conveyor belt, the crop waste is loaded straight into a huge tipping trailer. Those big trailers are filled directly, so we can skip an entire step in the process."
It's an exciting project, and it couldn't be more relevant. Waste handling is a hot topic in horticulture right now. In fact, Weterings Machinery received more questions about waste processing at this year's Greentech than ever before.
When the crop is cleared from the greenhouse, both the plants and the support twine are shredded. The waste processor can handle this mix and is able to sieve out up to 20% of the twine. The remaining organic material is blended with other compost and then spread. The result is clean enough to be applied without any further treatment.
© Annet Breure | HortiDaily.com
Rob van den Berg and Nick Weterings of Weterings Machinery
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The next question that quickly comes up is about biodegradable twine. It's readily available, and even though it breaks down naturally, it's still strong enough to last an entire season in the greenhouse. So, wouldn't that be the perfect way to make compost even cleaner?
Rob smiles. "In theory, yes. But it's more expensive than standard twine. So... you can guess the rest. For now, most growers aren't making that switch."
Another possible solution would be to remove the twine from the plants before pulling them out. Rob doesn't see that happening anytime soon. "In practice, it just doesn't happen. It's far too labor-intensive."
Electric crop rotation
We previously wrote about electric crop rotation following a conversation with Rob. How is that going now? What are the latest developments in that area? Rob: "In Europe, this isn't quite a thing yet, except in Scandinavia. They don't want exhaust gases in the greenhouse there. And in Hungary, the first cautious steps are being taken towards electric crop clearing machines. We expect more countries to follow soon."
For more information:
Weterings Machinery
Rob van den Berg
[email protected] 
Nick Weterings
[email protected]
(0174) 41 64 81
www.weterings.nl
