What is it about?
This study is a novel look at the volume of cannabis consumer packaging waste produced in California each year, broken down by market sector and compared to other major household hazardous wastes like oil, paint, batteries, and pharmaceuticals. In 2022, California had a consumer cannabis packaging waste stream of 13,103 tons, which is almost as large as the 16,805 tons of pharmaceuticals produced in 2021 and larger than the volume of oil, paint, and batteries. While oil, paint, batteries, and pharmaceuticals have robust infrastructure in place for recycling, no such infrastructure exists for cannabis waste at large scale.
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Why is it important?
This study is a first-of-its-kind look at cannabis solid waste, hazardous waste, and packaging waste. While there has been ample research on cultivation-related waste, there was an absence of data on solid waste prior to my study.
Perspectives
Since 2018 I have advocated to amend cannabis regulations around the United States to legalize the recycling of cannabis waste. One frequent question I would be asked by cannabis regulators was “is there any data?” At the time there was not, but thanks to my study, now there is data we can look at on cannabis packaging waste.
Mitchell Colbert
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Raising the Volume: How Regulations and Consumer Market Trends Have Increased the Volume of Cannabis Packaging Waste in California, Journal of Testing and Evaluation, November 2024, ASTM International,
DOI: 10.1520/jte20230806.
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