Recycle, Reduce, Reuse and Make Some Noise!

June 23, 2023

Recycle, Reduce, Reuse and Make Some Noise!

It’s been a few months since our we relaunched the Canna Collect Recycling Program and we are so grateful for all the participation from our customers, neighbors and community.

Every day people bring in their used cannabis packaging to recycle and get loyalty points in return, along with a 20% OFF coupon to redeem at their next visit.

In partnership with Northwest Island Botanicals, a woman owned small business, we are upcycling all the glass jars we collect from our recycling program participants. These used jars get turned into therapeutic candles for sale at our Culture Shop. The candles come in a variety of aromatic blends and a portion of the proceeds are donated to customer choice local charities.

TO CREATE REAL CHANGE WE NEED YOUR HELP

What we are doing is just a small step to reduce the impacts of a much bigger issue. We need your help to create an even greater impact.

Regulations still haven’t changed and the cannabis industry only continues to grow. That means the waste the industry and its consumers create also continues to grow.

There are more companies coming to fruition that are focused on creating innovative ways to recycle and reduce waste. However, even with their efforts, in order to create real change means we have to change legislation.

Maryam Mirnateghi, CEO and Founder of Canna West Seattle stated “We desperately need industry change to decrease industry waste. If climate is truly a priority to our representatives, then they need to look at the regulations that they are imposing on the cannabis industry that are directly impacting the environment and hurting small business.”

Our end goal was to bring awareness to the pollution cannabis packaging is causing, and to motivate industry leaders and state representatives to work together to change regulations and create business and environmentally friendly alternatives. We are hopeful that the Canna Collect Recycling Program will make customers more aware of what kind of cannabis packaging they are purchasing their products in, and in turn, create more eco-conscious consumers.

We want to work with our community and state representatives to find innovative solutions that improve the industry’s environmental impact. Help us deliver the message by simply copy and pasting this message and sending it to our state officials.

Washington State Capitol in Olympia

COPY AND PASTE THIS LETTER

Dear Members of the House and Senate,

I am writing today in regards to the environmental impact cannabis packaging is having on the state of Washington.

I ask that you work with your constituents to create a sustainable cannabis packaging program that incentivizes and rewards cannabis producer/processors who use recyclable or compostable packaging.

I request for the ban of mylar packaging, which is a non-recyclable material that only ends up in our landfills. Another option is to work with local scientists and technology companies to build a facility that can recycle mylar material or to invent other solutions that can reduce the amount of waste and pollution. If these options are too big a lift for the foreseeable future, there is the option of limiting the number of cannabis packaging by eliminating the sale of individually packaged cannabis that is less than 3.5 grams per package. This would eliminate a large portion of the packaging that is being used to sell one and two grams of cannabis at a time. This packaging is often the same size as the 3.5g packaging and creates an unnecessary amount of waste.

I also request that we improve the engineering of our current recycling facilities in order to accommodate recycling plastic containers that are smaller than a standard pill bottle i.e. Doob Tubes.

Let’s work together to move the industry towards innovation by raising the bar on environmental standards of production, while also establishing economically friendly solutions to support these small businesses.

Thank you for your time.