Here’s how this Ontario weed store handles its own cannabis recycling return program

Tom Khuong holds up cannabis tubes that once contained one joint each.

Then he points to a canister that held 14 pre-rolls; a container that looks like something used for a type of face cleansing product, and even some tins that house cannabis-infused drinks and dried marijuana.

Aside from containing pot products, they all have another thing in common: plastic packaging waste.

And oftentimes they don’t make it into blue recycling boxes — instead ending up on the road or sidewalk or even eventually into a landfill.

Khuong is the manager and part owner of Green Light District in Windsor, Ont., — a weed store located on Tecumseh Road near Ouellette Avenue.

For roughly the past two years, the location has run its own recycling program where customers can bring back containers and receive a discount of five cents off their next purchase.

It’s a rarity among stores within the southwestern Ontario border city.

“Since we opened, we’ve been seeing a lot of garbage … so we want to change that,” he said.

“We want to help the environment, and there’s so much waste of plastic that we just want to recycle it because we want to reuse it.”

Khuong says since they implemented the recycling program the response has been excellent.

“A lot of customers … They have been collecting it now. They bring grocery bags full of recycled products and they bring it in and then we count it and give them a discount towards their next purchase.”

However, unlike The Beer Store, they won’t pay you out money based on your returns — it’s applied similar to store credit.

Khuong calls the volume of cannabis packaging, even just for one joint, a “big waste of time” and a “lot of waste.”

Last month, a 21-year-old Windsor pot shop employee drew attention to an online petition he started pushing Ontario to adopt a cannabis container deposit return program similar to The Beer Store.

Shane Peters works at a Huron Church Road weed store in Windsor and wants the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) and Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) to bring in a sustainable packaging return plan.

“I used to walk to work and it’s a 30-minute walk. And along this whole walk, there’s cannabis packages all over the place, all over the ground, just out in the grass.”

Currently, only some OCS cannabis packaging can be recycled at the curb, and recycling programs vary between municipalities. The OCS does not control what packaging can or cannot be recycled.

A study published in 2020 estimated as much as 6.4 million kilograms of plastic cannabis packages was ending up in landfills across Canada. 

As of last month, there were roughly 1,800 stores across Ontario, according to the AGCO.

The packaging guidelines for recreational marijuana products are set by Health Canada and licensed producers must adhere to them. 

Khuong says he isn’t entirely sure why the industry and governments haven’t come together for a uniform recycling container program, but it might have something to do with the newness of it all in Canada.

“The industry is still new. And now we’re really into it. So now we just want to get that support of the government and the legal producers to recycle and reuse.”

And how exactly does his location recycle what’s given to them by customers? 

Khuong’s answer is as straightforward as it gets.

“I go to the recycle bin and recycle it.”