Less packaging, more recycling, means greener weed for New Brunswick

When cannabis was first legalized in Canada, customers immediately criticized the excessiveplastic packaging that came with it.

Some products generated as much as 70 grams of plastic and cardboard for one gram of marijuana.

But that is starting to change.

Some products, offeredin pill containers, have shed the outer cardboard boxes and shrink-wrapped plastic seal.

Others, such as a gram of cannabis from Ontario producer Aphria, come in sealed brown envelopes.

Cannabis producers cutting back on plastic waste after consumer backlash

5 years ago

Duration 0:51

Some weed producers are cutting down on plastic waste after backlash from consumers that started days after legalization.

"We are certainly mindful of the concerns raised around the amount of packaging used industry-wide, which was largely the result of ensuring compliance with the regulations under the Cannabis Act," saidAndrewSwartz, a spokesperson for Aphria.

"We are actively exploring new opportunities to streamline packaging within the existing regulations."

The brown envelopes with fixed zip-locksmeet Health Canada's requirementsof being tamper-evident and child-resistant.

Greener Weed

Cannabis NB spokesperson Marie-Andre Bolduc said the agency is also taking steps to recycle the plastic containers that arestill in use.

Every retail outletin the province now has recycling bins.

"I think there was a willingness from the industry to respond to the need to have recycle programs as much as possible," she said. "I know this same program is available in P.E.I., for example. So,I think this is a win-win for the producers as well as the customers."

Cannabis NB says it's recycled a dozen crates of plastic since the program launchedinMarch.

Less packaging and more recyclingissomething Canopy Growth, a licensed producer based in Ontario, says it's aiming for as well.

Canopy Growth, which operates its recreational cannabis division under the brand "Tweed," partners with TerraCycle, a recycling company that has broughtthe recycling box program to stores in seven provinces, including New Brunswick.

"We are seven months old, so we are still very much in an infancy stage," saidCourtneyLangille, a spokesperson for Canopy Growth.

"It's important for us to work corroborativelyabout these challenges that we all share so that we can kind of stand on a united front."