This piece of news should come as a relief for people who have accumulated a lot of cannabis packaging waste material over the past few months. Reportedly, many consumers have long complained about pot packaging that ends up in the landfill because of Health Canada’s rules requiring pot producers to package products in child-resistant, tamper-proof containers that prevent contamination.
Now, users can drop-off cannabis waste materials like plastic bottles, tins, joint tubes, plastic caps, flexible plastic bags, etc at two London dispensaries, viz. J. London at 691 Richmond St. and Central Cannabis at 666 Wonderland Rd.
This free initiative, which is also being dubbed as the first Canada-wide cannabis packaging recycling program, was launched by Canada’s biggest marijuana company, Tweed (a subsidiary of Cannabis Growth), on Earth Day, in collaboration with TerraCycle, an American recycling company.
Furthermore, both medical and recreational marijuana users can register at https://tweed.com/recycle to get their discarded packaging shipped to TerraCycle for free.
When asked about the idea behind starting this free program, Shega Youngson, Canopy’s community engagement manager, said, “It is important as an industry leader to really set the tone for the rest of the businesses and individuals that choose to buy cannabis. We wanted to provide a service to anyone who is operating with a license in the industry and anyone who buys legal marijuana from a licensed producer.”
Notably, Tweed itself will start serving as a drop-off point as soon as it starts operating at 1025 Wellington Rd. S.
Reportedly, the collected plastic will be recycled into things like benches and picnic tables.
Nearly 170,000 containers have been diverted from landfills so far, courtesy of the limited version of the program that has been into force since October 17, 2018, the same month cannabis was federally legalized in Canada.
In its 15 years of operation, TerraCycle has won over 100 awards for its fruitful collaboration with companies and cities to recycle packages and products, ranging from soiled diapers to discarded cigarette butts.
