SARCAN currently doesn鈥檛 recycle used plastic containers obtained from licenced recreational cannabis stores in Saskatchewan. When cannabis was legalized, many consumers weren鈥檛 expecting to cope with more excessive plastic waste, especially after the hubbub over plastic bags and bottles filling landfills and water bodies. But in the era of post-legalization, plastic bottles, boxes and cartons have replaced baggies for cannabis purchases.
The plastic containers for cannabis are designed to manage this new government-controlled product. Manufacturers don鈥檛 have to follow specified regulations in regards to the materials they use for the containers, but they have to follow specific guidelines set by Health Canada and the Federal Cannabis Act. The containers must be opaque or semi-transparent. Also, cannabis containers in Canada must be unappealing to children and youth, be able to guard against contamination and the boxes should keep the products fresh.
Across Canada, most of the provinces and territories haven鈥檛 yet addressed the issue of recycling cannabis containers. In Ontario, packaging for cannabis can be recycled in curbside recycling programs, or at the province鈥檚 recycling depots. The polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) containers are recyclable at all depots in Ontario. But containers manufactured from low-density polyethylene are only accepted at certain facilities. Meanwhile, containers made from polypropylene aren鈥檛 taken for recycling at the majority of Ontario鈥檚 sites. Since cannabis products come in a variety of packaging, including sealed envelopes, plastic jars, tubes and boxes, consumers in Ontario are asked to check the bottoms of their containers for the appropriate codes before recycling.
In the rest of Canada, there are options whenever local recycling programs aren鈥檛 available in either the province or the community. Canopy Growth Corporation have arranged a container recycling program through Tweed 鈥� the manufacturer鈥檚 retail brand. The recycling program is administered by the New Jersey-based company, TerraCycle.
TerraCycle will accept containers from all licenced producers in Canada. The containers must originate from licenced producers 鈥� the packages themselves don鈥檛 have to be derived from companies affiliated with Canopy Growth. Individual consumers can even post their used containers to TerraCycle for recycling. TerraCycle and their subcontractors will take the containers, clean them, then melt the boxes into plastic pellets, allowing them to be refashioned and manufactured into different products, such as park benches.
Currently, some cannabis retail outfits in Saskatchewan and elsewhere in Canada have recycling boxes for TerraCycle in their stores, where used cannabis containers can be dropped off after they鈥檙e cleaned. Unlike deposit bottles and cans, used cannabis containers cannot be redeemed for cash at this time.聽
