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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Cotton Ginning Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #409094
Research Project: Improving the Production and Processing of Western and Long-Staple Cotton and Companion Crops to Enhance Quality, Value, and Sustainability

Location: Cotton Ginning Research

Title: Data from: Performance of a cotton gin machine that removes plastic contamination from seed cotton

Author
item Whitelock, Derek
item Armijo, Carlos
item FUNK, PAUL - Retired ARS Employee

Submitted to: Ag Data Commons
Publication Type: Database / Dataset
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/3/2023
Publication Date: 10/3/2023
Citation: Whitelock, D.P., Armijo, C.B., Funk, P.A. 2023. Data from: Performance of a cotton gin machine that removes plastic contamination from seed cotton. Ag Data Commons. https://doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/1529765.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/1529765

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: This is USDA-ARS data from the publication: "Performance of a cotton gin machine that removes plastic contamination from seed cotton." The study was conducted during the Fall of 2020 with continued data analysis thru September 2021. Plastic contamination is the most pressing issue for the U.S. cotton industry today. Due to this problem, U.S. cotton has lost the 7 cents per pound premium it brought on international cotton markets. Plastic contaminants are often introduced prior to ginning, but cotton gin machinery can tear and shred the plastics so that they become more difficult to remove. A cotton gin machine developed and used to combat the plastic contamination problem in Chinese cotton was tested to compare its performance at removing typical plastics found in U.S. cotton to that of conventional cotton gin seed cotton cleaners.