Recycling in agriculture – ‘a story of innovation’ featured in Globe & Mail’s Next-Generation Farming Report

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.