Innovation win: From plastic waste to a stronger fence post

Danny Farkash is a natural-born tinkerer. The Vermilion, Alta., farm operator has been rigging up new inventions from the time he could grasp a screwdriver.

Today, he’s most proud of his latest invention: a one-of-a-kind machine that takes plastics such as grain bags and pond liners and turns them into fence posts stronger than fir wood in a low-emissions process.

A passionate recycler at heart, he receives his raw materials for free and typically pumps out 500 posts a day. He is driven by his passion for leaving the world in a better state.

Coming up with the idea

A man I know who worked at a local retailer and for [Vermilion River] County said to me, “Somebody needs to do something about this plastic,” since only 20% of agricultural plastics were being recycled. I was already making free-standing cattle fences out of recycled steel and I thought I could similarly recycle grain bags. At the same time, farm operators need good fence posts that don’t rot out after a few years – they get really mad about that.

So the question was: If we need a product that’s not available right now, could we do it at a price to make a business out of it and clean up the environment at the same time? The answer was yes.

How does it work?

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