• Reduces weight of plastic used by up to 50% making Solar Shrink more sustainable employing less valuable petrochemical resources to perform the task

• More metres on a roll reduces the weight of paper used for centre cores

• Solar Shrink is up to 6 times stronger than conventional mulch, it starts out much stronger and is thus much stronger at the end of the season to be easily recovered

• Solar Shrink is made from top quality polymer grades and employs only the best additives to protect the sheet from degrading in UV light, it starts out stronger and more flexible with better protection ensuring a high quality resin when the sheet is recycled

• Reduced weight of raw materials used reduces the number of trucks used to deliver to the factory

• Less weight of plastic further reduces truck emissions when transporting from the factory to the farm

• Reduced weight of scrap plastic at season end reduces truck emissions when disposing to landfill

• Less plastic reduces smoke emissions when burnt on farm

• Less weight to be processed in the factory reduces energy and power consumption for film production

• Lays faster reducing tractor running hours

• Less fuel and time required for laying

• Longer rolls for the same weight results in less stoppages

• Less roll changes and idle fuel time

• Roll lengths can be matched to drip tape lengths further reducing idle tractor time

• Lays faster using less tension, because it will shrink after laying to fit the bed perfectly

• Shrinks in Sunlight making the sheet pull tighter against the bed when laid

• Sheet wraps tightly to the bed preventing plastic pulling out in high wind

• Better contact with the bed surface leads to better heat transfer to the soil

• Better quality, nanometre particle size carbon black, leads to better heat absorption and better blocking of light to reduce weed growth

• Tight plastic provides for

  • Less heat loss from soil normally pumped out through the plant holes

  • Less moisture loss from soil due to no rippling

  • Less CO2 loss from soil leads to better root zone environment

  • Less maintenance due to flapping lose sheets

  • Less damage to seedlings from rubbing against flapping plastic

  • Less desiccation of seedlings if hot air is pumped out of the bed via plant holes

  • Less mechanical damage to the sheet caused by frequent flexing

  • No need for dumping soil on the sheet to keep it from billowing

• Less tearing and holes due to degradation and embrittlement of sheet

  • Less weeds

  • Less water and fertiliser used

  • Less compaction of bed soil

• Solar Shrink is up to 600% stronger than conventional mulch film

  • Reduces film break off and tearing when lifting from the soil

  • Starting the season so much stronger means it ends the season much stronger

• Less plastic left in soil from torn sheets

• Pick up by machine

• smaller tighter bundles

  • Lower transport costs

• Solar Shrink picks up cleaner

  • Stronger film can be shaken leading to less contamination

  • Better chance of recycling

  • Higher quality recycled pellets

• Less plastic required allows for more expensive high quality polymers to be used

• Polymers start the season stronger and finish stronger

• No cheap fillers like calcium carbonate

• No recycled content meaning weak polymers to start with

• Highest quality agricultural chemical resistant UV stabilizer additives ensure long outdoor life

• Minimal UV degradation at end of season

  • Option to double crop

  • Polymer remains strong and flexible

  • Minimal degradation of the polymer

  • Recycled plastic is of such high quality as to improve any batch of recycled material

• Biodegradable mulch film

  • Expensive up to 3X the retail price even though using less plastic than conventional

  • More difficult to lay as it is much thinner and layers stick to each other especially if bumped, making unwinding difficult

  • Unpredictable degradation time can lead to holes and additional use of water, fertilizer and extra weed growth

  • Higher density up to 25% higher than conventional mulch leads to greater transport cost

  • Early degradation leads to more water used

    • More fertiliser used

    • More weeds

    • More herbicide required

    • More bed maintenance required

  • Late degradation can lead to macro particles diverting water in soil

  • Macro particles can lead to micro particles in soil

  • Plastic can remain stuck on the surface of fruits in contact with it

  • Completely unsustainable 100% loss of all the resources used to manufacture – designed and required by standards for microbial conversion to CO2

  • No chance of recovery of kinetic energy stored in the polymer

  • Consists of mainly petrochemical polymers despite claims of containing starch

As a new category of mulch film Solar Shrink is available in the same colours and types of product supplied as conventional mulch film. These include:

Black - where the reduced volume of polymer used permits Solar Shrink to be competitive in price

Black/White – where Solar Shrink will assist with cooling the soil of the bed

Black/silver – where Solar Shrink provides some resistance to invasion by insects

Numerous colours - to suite a particular farmers requirements such as blue, green, brown, red, etc.

Metalized - where the upper surface is coated with highly reflective aluminium to discourage thrip and other insects

Totally Impermeable Film (TIF) - where Solar Shrink has the highest barrier properties of any competitive brand of mulch film, even with the Solar Shrink sheet being at least 20% thinner than the other brands.