Key Takeaways
- Netafim’s Re-Gen Program recycles used drip lines and channels the plastic back into new seasonal and heavy-wall drip products.
- Drip lines containing recycled material have a 25% lower CO₂ footprint than equivalent products made only from virgin plastic.
- The share of drip lines with recycled content at Netafim rose from 15% in 2019 to 43% in 2024, with pipes increasing from 17% to 55% over the same period.
- More than 60% of recycled plastic now comes directly from the field via the Re-Gen Program, up from almost zero just a few years ago.
- “We treat plastics as an asset… something that we are not allowing ourselves to waste as a resource that we can regenerate,” said Ido Raanan, Global Product Manager at Netafim.
From Kibbutz Fields to Circular Irrigation Leadership
For Ido Raanan, the story of Orbia Netafim’s Re-Gen Program is closely tied to his own path in agriculture. Netafim, Orbia’s Precision Agriculture business, was founded in a kibbutz, and Raanan notes that he was “practically born and raised” there. As a teenager he worked as a farmer, later joining Netafim as a technician in 1998 after his military service.
Over nearly three decades, he moved through roles in production, R&D, and sustainability, eventually completing an MBA and taking on responsibility for the company’s circularity initiatives. That experience with field machinery and sustainability laid the groundwork for what is now the Re-Gen Program.
“Sustainability is in Netafim’s DNA… we used to say that sustainability is our mission and irrigation is our business,” he said.
