Cannabis Packaging: Moving Beyond Waste Towards a More Sustainable Industry
“Sustainability” is a scary word for many operators in the cannabis industry. This is especially true in the processing & manufacturing vertical where sustainability efforts are often seen as synonymous with “increased cost.”
While cannabis cultivation receives the lion’s share of attention when it comes to the topic of sustainability, other segments of the industry also need to focus on improvements designed to decrease energy consumption and reduce the amount of post-consumer waste that enters the refuse stream.
However, restrictive THC packaging and handling regulations make it very challenging for operators to meet all the requirements while simultaneously reducing waste. And while operators have control over specific things there remains a number of things that operators have control over, there are a number of issues that will likely require state (or federal) legislation to appropriately address.
The good news is that sustainability efforts in the cannabis manufacturing vertical can actually reduce production costs while improving the end customer experience. It takes some planning and forethought, but with the right mindset and some creative thinking, sustainability can become an achievable goal and competitive advantage for cannabis manufacturers.
Packaging Issues in Cannabis Manufacturing
Cannabis manufacturers are often stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to product packaging for several reasons:
Regulations often limit producers’ options for packaging.
The need for child-resistant packaging that also contains the required labeling information further limits packaging options for some products.
Unfortunately, this often leads to excessive packaging that ends up as waste material (i.e., non-recyclable). In cases where the product is small, as with vape cartridges, packaging can account for well over 90% of the product’s retail presentation. Let’s examine the individual packaging components, using vape cartridges as the focus consumer product.
Packaging Components
Vape cartridge are made from several materials, often including borosilicate glass, plastics, and various metals. Cartridges range in size but are rarely longer than 2 inches.
Vape-cartridge-box-design: “A common style of package design for vape cartridges.”
For the purpose of this example, we are going to ignore the battery that sometimes accompanies vape cartridges in a kit. These batteries are typically rechargeable and reusable. However, the topics of battery disposal and recycling are beyond the scope of this article so we will set them aside for now.
Cartridges are often secured in a vacuum-formed tray within a larger exterior package. Unfortunately, the thermoplastics used for these trays (e.g. polystyrene or polyethylene) are typically not recyclable.
The tray is then inserted into a cardboard box. The box size may be partially driven by labeling regulations. Although these vary by state, the requirements to track and label cannabis products can be numerous and exceedingly detailed. For example, in Massachusetts, the labeling regulations even stipulate the font size on labels for products like edibles.
To make matters worse, many state laws require personalized information be affixed to the consumer packaging. This can include the production date, the expiration date, the patient’s name, and state-mandated warning text. The amount of text and customized nature of the content typically require that some sort of sticker be used to affix the information to the product (as opposed to having standard text printed directly onto the cardboard box).
This requirement has two unfortunate side effects:
The stickers themselves are not recyclable. Affixing these stickers to cardboard boxes reduces the recyclability and environmental friendliness of this material.
Add in some shrink wrap and/or tamper-evident tape seals and you have a lot of packaging that has very little to do with the actual end product landing in the refuse stream.
Packaging for Transportation & Distribution
Individual consumer boxes are often put into larger cardboard boxes as case packs. The sizes of these boxes vary based on the number of units in a case and the size of the individual consumer boxes. Multiple case packs are often put into a larger cardboard box to form a master case.
Operators that deliver their products directly to dispensaries could save both the case pack and the master case cardboard boxes by alternately using reusable totes to deliver their products (if allowed by state regulations). This does push some work downstream as now the totes would need to be unpacked and returned at the time of delivery (as opposed to simply dropping off a master case or several case packs in a cardboard box to be dealt with at a later time).
Case Study: BeneLeaves
BeneLeaves is a producer of THC products in Ohio. When BeneLeaves first started manufacturing vape cartridges for the Ohio market, it followed a packaging procedure much like the one described above. But almost immediately they knew they needed to make changes.
“We began getting all our cardboard boxes back in the van,” says Jeff Hollenback, COO of BeneLeaves. “Dispensaries don’t have room to store cases of cardboard.”
In addition to the lack of space, Hollenback found that the dispensary personnel needed to see the individual consumer boxes to take an appropriate inventory, thereby making the extra cardboard boxes even more superfluous.
Mylar® to the Rescue?
BeneLeaves then tried bags made of polyester film --- BoPET (Biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate), often referred to by the brand name Mylar --- as its next iteration of packaging for its vape cartridges.
This evolution had several advantages over the cardboard boxes:
First, it eliminated the need for thermoplastic trays as the cartridge could sit snuggly in the small bag.
The polyester film bags took up much less space than the cardboard boxes and still allowed the requisite sticker of customizable information to be affixed to the surface area of the bag. The bag was child-resistant and tamper-evident.
And to top it all off, the polyester film bag was less expensive per unit than the previous cardboard box methodology.
That sounds like an ideal solution, right? But what about the case packs and master cases? BeneLeaves found a creative solution to that as well.
In trying to find an appropriate transportation solution, they came across something called a “stadium bag.” These clear plastic bags were developed, as the name suggests, for stadiums that prohibit large purses or backpacks. The see-through stadium bags were large enough to store an entire case pack of vape cartridges plus their new polyester film bags. As an added bonus, stadium bags also included a handle.
By substituting the stadium bag for the cardboard box, BeneLeaves was able to improve their delivery experience for dispensaries by providing a case pack that was easy to transport, inventory, and store. The bags could hang on pegs from slat wall and could be inventoried without opening the bag.
And again, the stadium bags proved to be cheaper than the cardboard they replaced. And although this seems like a perfectly happy ending, this is not where our story ends.
Moving Beyond Mylar
Polyester film bags have gained a lot of traction in the cannabis industry thanks to their durability, flexibility in form factor, and their gas and aroma barrier properties. But Mylar is not without its critics.
Polyester film bags are not recyclable which is perhaps the biggest strike against them. But that wasn’t the issue that made BeneLeaves search for yet another alternative solution for their vape packaging.
Polyester-film-bags: “Polyester film bags are available in a variety of sizes and are prized for their flexibility as well as their odor-barrier properties.”
“I have rheumatoid arthritis and the safety seal on our polyester film bags was nearly impossible for me to open,” says Peggy Hollenback, Founding Partner of BeneLeaves. “I would usually resort to using scissors and, of course, that defeats the purpose of the child-resistant seal.”
Arthritis sufferers are not alone in struggling with child-resistant fasteners on these types of bags. It’s one of the most common complaints among consumers. Many dispensaries have their budtenders demonstrate how to operate these seals for customers before they leave the store because their use is not intuitively obvious.
Although they look like a standard zip-lock, they feel more like a puzzle box for some users.
In conjunction with Omega Equipment & Supply, BeneLeaves went in search of yet another solution to the issues at hand. After some research and testing, the group landed on using recyclable plastic tubes, much like the ones used for individual pre-roll packaging in many states. Ohio does not allow for the ingestion of cannabis by burning (i.e., smoking) so this type of packaging was not top of mind for producers in Ohio.
Pop-top-container: “Child-resistant pop-top containers are also available in a variety of configurations and can be reusable and/or recyclable.”
The plastic tube has a child-resistant pop-top mechanism that is easy for customers to learn and use. A labeling sticker can be added to the tube in such a way that it can be removed if the tube is to be recycled.
The tube does require a tamper-evident sticker to seal the lid. But even with this extra component, the entire per unit price is less than either the original cardboard solution or the polyester film bag.
The tubes still readily fit in the stadium bag as a case pack and are just as easy to inventory while taking up less of a dispensary’s valuable storage space.
Rethinking Recycling
As mentioned earlier, there are larger issues in the industry that will likely require legislative intervention to address. One of the thorniest of these issues is the recyclability of products like the vape cartridges themselves.
The individual elements of a vape cartridge are all excellent candidates for recycling. These include plastics, metals, and borosilicate glass. However, once THC distillate has been placed in the cartridge, it becomes virtually untouchable in a post-consumer world. The THC distillate “contaminates” the product and thus it cannot be handled like standard recycling.
Printers Lead the Way
One approach that has been suggested takes its cue from the office supplies industry. Although not as prevalent as it used to be, most big box office supply retailers run in-house recycling programs for used printer ink cartridges. These empty cartridges are turned in at the store sometimes in exchange for an incentive like consumer credit.
Recycling programs like this have kept tens of millions of printer cartridges out of landfills. Could a similar program work within the cannabis industry?
The most likely candidates for enacting such a program would be dispensaries. Since dispensaries are already licensed to handle THC products, it’s not a great leap to believe that they could manage a cartridge return program as well. That isn’t to say that implementing such a program would be easy. New processes and technology such as secure lock boxes or other technology to keep the spent cartridges secure would need to be developed.
But the most difficult challenge comes in the breaking down of the individual cartridges and parting out the individual materials to be recycled. The presence of THC distillate residue further complicates matters and is the prime reason that legislative action will likely be needed to push this effort forward.
Items containing THC distillate residue cannot be legally recycled by existing agencies without serious modifications in both their processes and the state laws governing both recycling and the handling of THC-containing products.
Handling of THC-containing, post-consumer waste is not addressed in most state regulations in any meaningful way. Issues like this indicate how early on we are as an industry in our journey toward sustainability.
Re-Evaluating with Sustainability in Mind
Settling for the first option can lead to suboptimal results. As was the case with BeneLeaves, a diligent focus on sustainability also came with cost savings and customer experience improvements.
“Our solutions have to be right both for our business and for our customers,” says BeneLeaves CEO, Peggy Hollenback.
Embracing this mindset is a huge opportunity for manufacturers that provide ancillary products to the cannabis industry. Companies that can provide customer-focused solutions at a reasonable price point will win this market.
*Omega Equipment & Supply (www.omegastore.com) is a full-service supply chain solution for the cannabis industry – serving cultivators, processors, manufacturers, dispensaries/retailers, distributors, and testing facilities. We have nationwide distribution through our network of 5 distribution centers. We also offer custom fabrication in addition to a full range of equipment and supplies for the cannabis industry.
*BeneLeaves (https://www.beneleaves.com/) is a licensed manufacturer that meticulously sources cannabis strains from trusted Ohio growers that target the 22 qualifying medical conditions recognized by the state of Ohio.
