Rinsing Practices of Australian Farmers: the Characteristics of Farmers who do not Rinse Chemical Residues from Empty Containers

In recent years, the potential environmental and health impact of chemicals left in empty containers has emerged as an important issue for farmers and the wider community. In 1994, a nationally representative study of Australian farmers was commissioned to ascertain whether and to what extent farmers were rinsing empty chemical containers, and to identify the factors which were associated with this behaviour. This paper focuses its attention on that group of farmers who do not rinse their empty chemical containers and argues that the containers used by this group pose the greatest threat to the environment and public health. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between non-rinsing and a range of selected variables from the adoption-diffusion and economic models of conservation innovation. A multivariate logistic regression analysis found that non-rinsing was significantly predicted by the following variables: no formal training in the use of agricultural and veterinary chemicals, having a tertiary education, being a livestock farmer, having no additional adults permanently employed in production activities on the farm, operating a farm greater than 3500 hectares, not perceiving that rinsing containers is important, and not believing that chemical residues in empty containers were a threat to the environment. Policy implications are discussed.