A pesticide amnesty has taken place across Devon and Cornwall to help protect the environment, South West Water said.
More than 840 liters of harmful chemicals are said to have been collected from farms by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust and Westcountry Rivers Trust.
The work, which was funded by the water company, encouraged the amnesty of unwanted, obsolete or banned chemicals to prevent them from accidentally entering the environment.
Carolyn Cadman, Suidwes Water’s director for natural resources, said the work was important because “one gram of pesticide can be traced many kilometers downstream”.
She said: “Farmers often hang on to outdated pesticides because they don’t know what to do with them or just can’t manage to get rid of them.
“These old containers can easily crack and lead to accidental spills into the environment.”
Further collections are already underway, South West Water added.
Annabel Martin, head of land management at Westcountry Rivers Trust, said the service enabled farmers to “do the right thing” without risk to themselves.
“Since 2016, we have collected and disposed of over 7.3 tonnes of unwanted pesticides, herbicides and insecticides from 117 farms in our Upstream Thinking catchments in Devon and Cornwall,” she said.
“Given the highly mobile nature of these chemicals, it is incredibly important to remove the risk of spills and leaks, even when the river is far from the farmyard.”