Canada and the work toward a greener legal marijuana industry

New statistics show that Canadians like their weed and like to recycle.

OK. New statistics actually do not definitively show how much Canadians like their weed and like to recycle. That was just fun to write.

But new statistics show that Canadians have recycled more than 1 million pieces of plastic cannabis packaging during the first year of a collection program organized by Tweed, a cannabis brand, and TerraCycle, the recycler known for unique recycling programs.

The recovery effort — aimed at plastic containers, tubes and bottles — reports that 22,000 pounds of pot packaging has been recovered since October 2018.

“When Tweed launched the partnership with TerraCycle, it was the first recycling program of its kind for cannabis packaging. Reaching this incredible milestone of over 1 million pieces collected in less than one year demonstrates the value of the program,” Mark Zekulin said in a statement. He is CEO at Canopy Growth Corp., the parent company for Tweed. “We’re committed to doubling down on our efforts to expand the program over the next year and bringing in new participants from all across Canada.”

So at this point, it would be logical to assume readers might be wondering who are the biggest potheads in Canada.

Strike that.

So at this point, it would be logical to assume readers might be wondering who are the biggest pothead recyclers in Canada.

Wait, no.

So at this point, it would be logical to assume readers might be wondering who are the biggest recyclers of cannabis packaging in Canada.

The companies provided this rundown of recycling per province, according to the number of pieces recovered: Alberta, 407,695; New Brunswick, 168,550; Ontario, 168,545; Newfoundland and Labrador, 163,200; Manitoba, 124,850; Saskatchewan, 51,900; Prince Edward Island, 38,299; and British Columbia, 23,400.

The program allows consumers to return their used packaging to retailers or register online for free prepaid shipping labels for the empty containers.

Items accepted include plastic outer and inner packaging, tins, tubes, plastic bottles, plastic caps and flexible plastic bags.

While Tweed is sponsoring the effort, empty cannabis packaging from any licensed Canadian producer is accepted.

The recycling program now includes 280 retail locations across Canada.

This post appeared first on Plastics News.