Canadian farmers have a proud heritage of producing food for the world. For this work, they rely on many plastic-based specialty products, for example, for storing grain; collecting, protecting and fermenting hay; keeping moisture in and weeds out of soil as well as handling sap from maple trees.
Dealing with the waste that such agricultural practices create – wrapping materials, twine, special films, containers, tubing and more – has become an ever-expanding effort by the producers and distributers of these items. Through Cleanfarms, a non-profit environmental stewardship organization, they offer recycling and recovery solutions, in collaboration with partner agencies, that keep these crop input and storage tools out of landfill.
“We’re like the blue box for agriculture,” says Barry Friesen, executive director of Cleanfarms, based in Etobicoke, with operations across Canada. As a “producer responsibility organization,” it oversees the recycling of agricultural plastics and rounds up obsolete chemicals and animal medications for safe disposal.
Now, government-supported programs are increasingly making these once voluntary efforts mandatory, beginning in Saskatchewan with grain bags; then Manitoba with grain bags and twine; Prince Edward Island with fertilizer bags, bale and silage wrap; and Quebec, which last year introduced the country’s most comprehensive agricultural recycling program. And the industry is promoting new ways to collect plastic-based materials and turn them into new products.
“Recycling in agriculture is the story of innovation,” Mr. Friesen says, noting that this can be challenging. For instance, a bag used to store grain can run 60 to 150 metres in length, weighing a minimum of 150 kilograms when empty.
Each new program has brought a need for innovative techniques, he says, especially in Quebec, where his not-for-profit organization, which is called AgriRÉCUP in the province, is “stepping up to get the job done.”
Christine Lajeunesse, director for Eastern Canada at Cleanfarms, says the Quebec program collected more than 3,000 tonnes of materials in the first year.
“Much of that would have ended up in landfill in the past,” says Ms. Lajeunesse, who is based in St. Bruno, Quebec. Collection sites have been established across the province where farmers drop off items to be taken to a recycler to be shredded, cleaned and turned into pellets that are made into products from car parts to agricultural drain tiles.
She says 574 tonnes of maple sap lines were collected last year, and numbers are increasing. Quebec’s sugarbushes use blue-tinted polyethylene tubing, which has a lifespan of 10 to 15 years. This means syrup producers replace about 3,000 tonnes of the tubing each year.
One of the new recycling programs in place involves hiring people with special needs who are reintegrating into the workplace. Their job includes sorting the plastic before it is shredded, washed and pelletized. Once pelletized, it can be converted to new plastic materials.
Ms. Lajeunesse says Cleanfarms is also working on a circular economy project where waste plastics such as grain bags can be turned into new products by local companies.
In many cases, a nominal environmental handling fee is added to prices of products when they are purchased to support the cost of their recycling, Mr. Friesen says. Once used, the products can be dropped off for recycling or safe disposal at no additional charge.
These extended producer responsibility programs enshrine a more formal role for the agricultural industry, ensure more widespread participation, expand funding, bring wider access for farmers, offer new solutions and level the playing field, he says.
“Farmers can find new ways to promote sustainability and know that they’re contributing to a cleaner environment,” says Mr. Friesen, who sees a future where agricultural recycling will be required everywhere. “If it’s distributed, farmers will have a program to take it back.”