Canadian pot growers say marijuana byproduct a missed chance for industry
Licensed marijuana producers in Canada are throwing out thousands of kilograms of plant waste each year in what some of them say is a missed opportunity to find other uses for the byproduct.
Health Canada’s destruction policy for producers makes it impossible to benefit or learn from the potentially valuable waste product, said Terry Lake, the vice-president of corporate social responsibility at Hydropothecary, a licensed producer in Gatineau, Que.
“We’re growing like 3,000 kilograms to a 108,000 thousand kilograms each year. That’s an awful lot of waste,” said Lake, who is a former health minister in British Columbia.
Lake said almost half of everything Hydropothecary grows is tossed into the compost bin.
Like its cousin the hemp plant, Lake said the stems of the marijuana plant could be used as fibre for a wealth of products like T-shirts, animal feed and housing siding.
“The stalk could be used as a reinforcer for cement, another use of hemp fibre, or could be used as insulation,” said Lake.
Shawn McDougall, production manager at BlissCo, a licensed producer in Langley, B.C., said the company mixes leftover stalks, stems and leaves into its food waste compost, and must report the amount dumped to Health Canada.
“There is some great future potential stuff there, but we’re mandated by Health Canada to destroy and dispose,” said McDougall.
Lake said Hydropothecary has to undergo the same process.
No one from Health Canada was available for an interview.
McDougall and Lake said most of the plant material underneath the flowered buds, such as leaves, stems, and stalks, all have negligible amounts of THC, the active chemical ingredient found in marijuana plants.
McDougall said for years when marijuana was unregulated in California and Oregon personal growers would juice the leaves and stems of the plant, turning them into a beverage.
BlissCo CEO Damian Kettlewell said juicing is just one of the applications they would like to develop after legalization in Canada later this year, along with distilled marijuana resin, commonly known as shatter.
“We are in the process of doing research on edibles and on vape pens, and then we anticipate there will be other high concentrate and high THC products like shatter available as well,” said Kettlewell.
McDougall said none of the company ’s plants are sprayed with pesticides.