With the ongoing growth of the medicinal & recreational cannabis industry, cannabis waste is becoming a problem within the industry.
Increasing regulations will likely be implemented to prevent cannabis smoke and residues from affecting children, youth, and the environment. Currently you are expected to process your waste in a quite complicated way to ensure proper disposal.
What is Cannabis waste?
Any packaging or materials that have made contact with cannabis, that is not for sale or usable in any way, must be designated as cannabis waste.
Including:
- Dirt or sponge used for cultivation.
- Unused cannabis trimmings.
- Unused cannabis.
- Unused oils, extracts, other cannabis liquids.
- Expired, unused, leftover edibles and drinks.
- Unused cannabis grinders.
- Unused cannabis vape pens.
- Unused cannabis capsules, containers, wrappings, packaging, etc.
- Empty nutrition boxes/packaging
What is the problem?
Many cannabis growers don't know how to manage and dispose of their waste.
The cannabis waste regulation was put in place in order to make sure that the soil, sponge and pebbles used to grow marijuana aren't being dumped in public bins. Cannabis waste is treated similarly to medical waste. The growing demand for medical marijuana has lead to legalization in several countries. This only means that the current regulations will become tighter overtime as the industry expands.
"It's such a massive and rapidly growing sector. This will be far and away the largest agricultural commodity in the next couple of years." - Nichelson, from Circular Systems
Ways to get rid of cannabis waste
- Shredding
- Mixing it with other ground materials.
- Composting
- Incineration
At the moment, the most common way that companies dispose of cannabis waste is by grinding the waste down and mixing it with other materials. This is due to current regulations stating that the waste must be rendered unusable and unrecognizable. By law, the resulting mixture must be at least 51% non-marijuana waste by volume.
This can be very a costly waste management plan and time consuming. This method requires you to find tonnes of non-marijuana waste. You then shred it down and then dispose of it, most likely to landfill. Landfill currently costs $105 per tonne of waste!
What we can do?
Incineration is the ideal waste solution to manage your cannabis waste.
Cannabis by-products can be safely incinerated reducing them to just 3% of their original volume as harmless ash. Our range of models mean this could be done on-site, at your facility or at a centralised facility specifically designed to process cannabis waste.
Our Sirocco model is ideal for most small waste stream incineration with the added benefit of mobility, it can go anywhere.
The efficiency is impressive. It reduces the waste to 3% of the initial volume. It has been manufactured to ensure that ashes can be removed in the quickest time possible (free ash removal rake included). The key benefits of this entry-level model are that it is fully mobile and requires no fuel.
I8-200G model is an entry-level large-scale incinerator. The i8-200G is a high capacity model from our range of general waste incinerators.
It has an optional automatic loading system and automatic de-ashing system. This will help to make the waste disposal a lot less time consuming and easier for you to manage. It also ensures operatives have limited contact/exposure to your waste.
If you are a police enforcement or agency wanting to get rid of any confiscated drugs or narcotics, please see our page on drug and contraband incinerators.
Speak to one of our experts today on 1 833- 253- 5678
