The Plastic Problem in the Cannabis Industry

One of the best things about cannabis is how pure it can be, especially with flower coming straight from the plant. For people looking for natural medicine or those who just want a healthier way to relax, it’s hard to find something as connected to the Earth as cannabis.

But along with the growth in the legal cannabis industry, there has also been a growing environmental impact. Simply put, the cannabis industry has a waste problem, particularly in the form of plastic packaging. A single gram of cannabis comes with an average of 70 grams of packaging waste, primarily in the form of single-use plastics. As one of the most forward-thinking industries of our generation, it’s time to open our eyes to the amount of packaging and plastics going to waste throughout the industry.

The Problem with Plastic

One of the leading forms of destruction to our Earth’s ecosystems is plastic pollution. It fills up landfill sites, clogs rivers and oceans, and generates pollution through open burning and incineration. A plastic bag is only used for 12 minutes on average, but it takes 10 to 1000 years to degrade in landfills. And many of the plastics we use every day contain and leach out hazardous chemicals that can spread into soil groundwater, creating risks to wildlife and people. 

New research suggests that the impact of plastics on soils, sediments, and freshwater is having a more significant long-term impact than we previously imagined. And while plastic waste on land creates problems of its own, most plastic trash that litters the ground or is mismanaged by landfills makes its way to the ocean. Plastic is constantly being carried to the sea by our river systems that act as a conveyor belt, picking up and moving more trash as it flows downstream.

There are currently 5 trillion pieces of plastic moving through our oceans, with millions of additional pieces of plastic entering each day. Once it enters coastal waters through river outlets, it’s picked up by ocean currents and transported around the world, making it very difficult to remove. These are mainly single-use plastics -- which customers often purchase when buying cannabis at a dispensary --  and they never truly break down. They continue on for up to 500 years in the marine environment, breaking down into microplastics that reside in sea life. While there isn’t one easy answer on how to clean up this mess, we can certainly use less plastic.

Plastic and Cannabis

Anyone who has visited a cannabis dispensary has witnessed the excessive amount of plastic packaging in which cannabis is sold. So how did we get here? Why is it that the cannabis industry has such a plastic waste problem? A lot of it comes down to state packaging requirements, which unfortunately leads to many single-use plastics in the industry. Many states require child-proof packaging that involves an additional layer of plastic to surround every purchase.

This extra packaging is designed to keep children out of cannabis. But whether the extra layer of plastic keeps them safe is up for debate. What is certain is that it ends up as waste along with single pre-roll plastic tubes, disposable vape carts, and other single-use cannabis packaging.

The good news is that global awareness of climate change is increasing, and people want to make different choices for purchasing goods. But because the cannabis industry is so heavily regulated, consumers are at the mercy of what the legal market provides them -- which includes a lot of plastic. Fortunately, a growing number of consumers are looking for sustainable practices and are demanding better options from the cannabis industry.

Eco-Friendly Packaging

While many states require cannabis packaging to be tamper-evident, child-resistant, and resealable, the law doesn’t require it to be virgin plastic. And many companies are coming up with innovative ways to use more sustainable materials for their packaging. Things like recycled glass, paper, hemp plastics, and recycled plastics are great alternatives to traditional single-use plastics and are what consumers want to see when they look for eco-minded brands.

What Else Can We Do?

The first step to a more sustainable industry begins with awareness of the problems and alternative options to wasteful practices. Unfortunately, waste management is sometimes an afterthought for some cannabis companies. That’s what makes educational awareness crucial for shifting attitudes and behaviors towards recycling, reduction, and reuse of cannabis wastes streams.

The more everyone is aware of the plastic problem in the cannabis industry, the more we can use knowledge to make changes through innovation. Working towards sustainability isn’t easy in an industry that is heavily regulated. But the more action businesses take to use sustainable packaging, the more consumers will come to demand sustainable practices and demand changes in regulation that can help reduce the need for single-use plastics in cannabis.

At Tree Hugger, we provide cannabis packaging made from recycled materials for forward-thinking cannabis companies. If you’d like to do your part in reshaping the cannabis industry by creating solutions to the plastic problem, reach out to us!