CBD OIL

On December 16, 2020, Aphria Inc. (TSX: APHA and Nasdaq: APHA) announced a merger with Tilray, Inc. (Nasdaq: TLRY), creating the world’s largest cannabis company. The two Canadian companies combined have an equity value of $3.9 billion.

Following the news of the merger, Tilray’s stock rose more than 21% the same day. Once the reverse-merger is finalized, Aphria shareholders will own 62% of the outstanding Tilray shares. That is a premium of 23% based on share price at market close on the 15^th. Based on the past twelve months of reports, the two companies’ revenue totals more than $685 million.

Both of the companies have had international expansion strategies in place well beyond the Canadian market, with an eye focused on the European and United States markets. In Germany, Aphria already has a well-established footprint for distribution and Tilray owns a production facility in Portugal.

About two weeks ago, Aphria closed on their $300 million acquisition of Sweetwater Brewing Company, one of the largest independent craft brewers in the United States. Sweetwater is well known for their 420 Extra Pale Ale, their cannabis-curious lifestyle brands and their music festivals.

Once the Aphria/Tilray merger is finalized, the company will have offices in New York, Seattle, Toronto, Leamington, Vancouver Island, Portugal and in Germany. The new combined company will do business under the Tilray name with shares trading on NASDAQ under ticker symbol “TLRY”.

Aphria’s current chairman and CEO, Irwin Simon, will be the chairman and CEO of the combined company, Tilray. “We are bringing together two world-class companies that share a culture of innovation, brand development and cultivation to enhance our Canadian, U.S., and international scale as we pursue opportunities for accelerated growth with the strength and flexibility of our balance sheet and access to capital,” says Simon. “Our highly complementary businesses create a combined company with a leading branded product portfolio, including the most comprehensive Cannabis 2.0 product offerings for patients and consumers, along with significant synergies across our operations in Canada, Europe and the United States. Our business combination with Tilray aligns with our strategic focus and emphasis on our highest return priorities as we strive to generate value for all stakeholders.”

When Cannabis 2.0 launched in Canada with the sale of cannabis edibles, beverages and vape products, Marshall Posner, chief marketing officer for vertically integrated licensed producer Delta 9, said the company wanted to do more to ensure cannabis packaging and waste was being dealt with responsibly.

While packaging for dried flower and other cannabis products can generally be recycled as part of Canada’s Blue Box recycling program, many vape products are designated as special waste and cannot be recycled in the same way, meaning that they often end up in landfills.

“As we’ve seen these products become more prevalent in our stores, we felt we needed to do something in a responsible fashion to help address … where this packaging and cannabis waste is ending up,” Posner told Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.

This led Delta 9 to partner with Canadian recycling company Emterra Environmental to create a sustainable recycling program for cannabis packaging and disposable vape pens, as well as a landfill diversion program for vape cartridges, to help the Canadian cannabis industry transition to a circular economy.

Emterra Environmental was founded 44 years ago as a Vancouver-based recycling company.

“Unlike some of our industry peers, we don’t see ourselves as a waste disposal company or a landfill operator,” said Paulina Leung, VP of corporate strategy and business development for Emterra Environmental. Her mother started the company, which has since grown to 1,100 employees, 15 recycling plants and over 800 trucks. “Our true core is to be a recycler and to help ensure any kind of material we extract from the earth gets to be used over and over again.”

Emterra Environmental has moved beyond its initial role as a recycling and waste management company, Leung said, and now works directly with companies, such as Delta 9, that want to take responsibility for their products and work to increase sustainability in the marketplace.

“That’s where we have a similar ethos with Delta 9,” Leung said. “We’re both vertically integrated companies in our respective industries, and instead of waiting for government to tell us what to do with cannabis packaging and vape products, we found each other and we created this customer program … to help Delta 9 continue to grow in a sustainable way.”

Delta 9 launched in 2013 as one of Canada’s original LPs, and currently operates eight retail stores across Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan in addition to its cultivation operations. The company will open a ninth store next week and aims to open another 11 retail locations by the end of 2021.

“We think of ourselves as a socially responsible company, and we’ve participated in a variety of green initiatives or recycling programs that the industry has started and stopped over the past year and a half,” Posner said. “We were excited about this and it seemed like a good fit for us to restart or relaunch a new program that would ultimately be sustainable for the industry.”

Leung added: “We saw other programs in the industry come and go, and in seeing those programs come and go, we saw that there were opportunities and ways to make our program more effective, more efficient, and also more authentic.”

The first component of the program allows consumers to recycle cannabis packaging similar to Canada’s well-established Blue Box program, while a second component focuses on landfill diversion for disposable vape cartridges and vape pens.

“Of course, landfilling is absolutely the worst,” Leung said. “Things stay in landfills forever—it never decomposes. So, the second option was to recover the energy from the cartridges. That’s what makes our program unique.”

To participate in the recycling program, consumers can simply bring their empty containers and vape products to any Delta 9 retail location and deposit them into boxes labeled “Flower – Recycling” or “Vapes – Landfill Diversion.”

The program accepts cannabis packaging and disposable vape cartridges and vape pens from any licensed producer, regardless of brand. Consumers can simply bring their empty containers and vape products to any Delta 9 retail location and deposit them into boxes labeled “Flower – Recycling” or “Vapes – Landfill Diversion.”

Consumers are asked to wrap the vape cartridges in individual bags before putting them into the box to make it easier for the recycler to sort the cartridges from the pens, which ultimately increases recyclability, Leung said.

The contents of the flower recycling box will be picked up and delivered to ReVital Polymers’ plastics recycling facility in Sarnia, Ontario, where post-consumer plastics are processed into engineered resin products.

The collected vape pens and vape cartridges are processed at Emterra Environmental’s partner electronics recycling facility, where the pens are separated from the cartridges for processing. The battery, plastic and metal are recovered from the vape pens, while the cartridges are handled as special waste and sent to an energy-from-waste facility for processing. All of this happens domestically in Canada, and no waste is shipped abroad.

“When the recycling is full on our end, there’s a bag inside,” Posner said. “We take it, put it in a box and book a pick-up online from Canada Post, and that’s it. It’s a real simple process. I think that’s what I really like about this program. If you look at successful programs, they’re really quite simple. There aren’t all of these steps that you have to adhere to.”

Emterra Environmental and Delta 9 have created educational Q&As to display on their websites and in-store to help both consumers and Delta 9’s retail staff understand the process and why it is important.

In the several days since the program’s launch, online and in-store response has been positive, Posner said.

“Our customers have been asking us for months when we’ll be introducing vape recycling or some kind of a vape program or … recycling program for cannabis packaging,” he said. “I think for a lot of them, they’re like, ‘Oh, good, it’s about time.’”

The long-term success of any diversion program requires the industry to participate, Leung added, and she and Posner hope that other LPs will take notice and join in.

“Delta 9 certainly led this initiative and I really hope they have set the example and other LPs will join because when industry acts as a whole, not only will the program be more cost-effective for everybody, but it will also show government that they don’t need to regulate the industry from a waste management perspective,” Leung said. “Industry is taking responsibility for the end-of-life management of cannabis and vape products and packaging, they’re being proactive, and I think government appreciates that. From a compliance or government affairs perspective and from achieving a cost-effective program, industry working together will result in the best outcome for all the players.”

Creating packaging with circular end-of-life solutions is not a competitive issue, she added, and should instead be something that the entire industry collaboratively addresses.

“As soon as Marshall and I started talking, it was very like-minded,” Leung said. “We saw that the industry is growing very quickly, and sometimes when an industry is growing very quickly, some of the elements of sustainability take a while to catch up. … I hope this is a launching pad for a nationwide program that will be able to manage all the cannabis packaging, as well as the vape pens and the vape cartridges. … I really hope that the industry hears this call to action and works together.”

The partnership between Delta 9 and Emterra Environmental relies on shared expenses, which will ultimately contribute to the long-term viability of the program, Posner said.

“The packaging is as diverse as the types of products that are held in them, and on the spectrum of really recyclable to terrible [and] not recyclable, the packaging will fall anywhere on that spectrum,” Leung said. “What we want to do in this program is to take a look at each brand and each type of packaging available and to be able to give some analysis and recommendations to the LPs to say, ‘This type of packaging is really good—can you transition more of your packaging to this type?’ Then, we’ll also be honest and say, ‘This type of packaging is not good, so can we work together and find some other alternatives?’”

“This was important to our employees, it’s important to our customers, and quite frankly, we think it’s a responsibility of any company,” Posner added. “Whether [it’s] a cannabis company or another that is producing waste and putting waste into the marketplace, [it should] have a solution on the backend or at least contribute to a solution on the backend to help deal with the waste.”

This year, the oldest members of Gen Z turned 23. That means the legal cannabis industry is about to be bombarded with new customers—members of a distinct generation with new tastes and emerging cultural touchstones.

The HQ Cannabis Brand Affinity report was issued in December 2020 by Headquarters, a strategic advisory studio focused on driving growth for businesses and brands entering the California cannabis market, in conjunction with The Statement Group. The report lays out the lifestyle trends and spending power found among Gen Z (and millennial) customers.

Gen Z is defined as anyone born between 1997 and 2012-2015 (depending who you ask). As of January 2020, according to the report, Gen Z spending power clocked in at $143 billion.

So, what does the younger set gravitate toward? The big topics include: hip-hop and R&B, fashion, social influencers and gaming.

READ MORE: Gen Z and Millennials: A New Age of Cannabis Consumers 

“Gen Z and millennial lifestyle cannabis consumers—an often tough-to-reach consumer group—make up a significant share of the cannabis market today,” said Headquarters CEO Daniel Abrahami. “As we head into the holiday season and New Year, these consumers are only expected to take a greater share of the market. … Our hope is that cannabis brands leverage this proprietary data to gain the competitive advantage they’re looking for in this highly competitive space.”

Read the full report here or scroll down for an embedded version. 

With the rise of online ordering and cannabis delivery, it becomes incumbent upon dispensary owners to navigate their marketing messages toward the consumer. Often in 2020 and going forward, this can mean getting out of the traditional retail environment and providing a more immersive message. 

“From a psychographic standpoint, it’s always great to know which cannabis icons like Wiz Khalifa, Seth Rogen or Snoop Dogg resonate with Gen Z and millennial consumers, but those huge names are often not actionable for most budgets,” said The Statement Group Founder Cory Jones. “We dig deeper into the data to uncover everyone that your consumers love—from brands, artists and influencers, who range from 1,000 to 100 million followers. When you know exactly who your audience is interested in, you have a detailed roadmap to develop revenue-driving partnerships, paid media campaigns and social media and native content strategies. It takes the guesswork out of marketing and cuts wasted spends. When you align your brand with your audience’s interests, your engagement skyrockets and you build a deeper emotional connection and loyalty with your consumers that lasts years.”

Alignment is key. It’s not like dispensary owners need to partner with Wiz Khalifa to hone their messaging. Rather, these lifestyle trends might allow for more inventive strategies. Advertising + gaming. Music + customer loyalty programs.

As Gen Z grows up, these interests will only grow more important as a broad suite of intersections with the ever-expanding cannabis industry.

“They’re living their life the way they want to live it,” Jennifer McLaughlin, vice president of merchandising for cannabis operator Calyx Peak Companies, told us earlier in the year. “It’s all about the social interaction for them now—socially interacting with cannabis. Market to the fact they have these rich lifestyles. Market to what they’re doing in their lives.”

HQ Brand Affinity Report: Millennials GenZ Cannabis Consumers by sandydocs on Scribd

When Cannabis 2.0 launched in Canada with the sale of cannabis edibles, beverages and vape products, Marshall Posner, chief marketing officer for vertically integrated licensed producer Delta 9, said the company wanted to do more to ensure cannabis packaging and waste was being dealt with responsibly.

While packaging for dried flower and other cannabis products can generally be recycled as part of Canada’s Blue Box recycling program, many vape products are designated as special waste and cannot be recycled in the same way, meaning that they often end up in landfills.

“As we’ve seen these products become more prevalent in our stores, we felt we needed to do something in a responsible fashion to help address … where this packaging and cannabis waste is ending up,” Posner told Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.

This led Delta 9 to partner with Canadian recycling company Emterra Environmental to create a sustainable recycling program for cannabis packaging and disposable vape pens, as well as a landfill diversion program for vape cartridges, to help the Canadian cannabis industry transition to a circular economy.

Emterra Environmental was founded 44 years ago as a Vancouver-based recycling company.

“Unlike some of our industry peers, we don’t see ourselves as a waste disposal company or a landfill operator,” said Paulina Leung, VP of corporate strategy and business development for Emterra Environmental. Her mother started the company, which has since grown to 1,100 employees, 15 recycling plants and over 800 trucks. “Our true core is to be a recycler and to help ensure any kind of material we extract from the earth gets to be used over and over again.”

Emterra Environmental has moved beyond its initial role as a recycling and waste management company, Leung said, and now works directly with companies, such as Delta 9, that want to take responsibility for their products and work to increase sustainability in the marketplace.

“That’s where we have a similar ethos with Delta 9,” Leung said. “We’re both vertically integrated companies in our respective industries, and instead of waiting for government to tell us what to do with cannabis packaging and vape products, we found each other and we created this customer program … to help Delta 9 continue to grow in a sustainable way.”

Delta 9 launched in 2013 as one of Canada’s original LPs, and currently operates eight retail stores across Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan in addition to its cultivation operations. The company will open a ninth store next week and aims to open another 11 retail locations by the end of 2021.

“We think of ourselves as a socially responsible company, and we’ve participated in a variety of green initiatives or recycling programs that the industry has started and stopped over the past year and a half,” Posner said. “We were excited about this and it seemed like a good fit for us to restart or relaunch a new program that would ultimately be sustainable for the industry.”

Leung added: “We saw other programs in the industry come and go, and in seeing those programs come and go, we saw that there were opportunities and ways to make our program more effective, more efficient, and also more authentic.”

The first component of the program allows consumers to recycle cannabis packaging similar to Canada’s well-established Blue Box program, while a second component focuses on landfill diversion for disposable vape cartridges and vape pens.

“Of course, landfilling is absolutely the worst,” Leung said. “Things stay in landfills forever—it never decomposes. So, the second option was to recover the energy from the cartridges. That’s what makes our program unique.”

To participate in the recycling program, consumers can simply bring their empty containers and vape products to any Delta 9 retail location and deposit them into boxes labeled “Flower – Recycling” or “Vapes – Landfill Diversion.”

The program accepts cannabis packaging and disposable vape cartridges and vape pens from any licensed producer, regardless of brand. Consumers can simply bring their empty containers and vape products to any Delta 9 retail location and deposit them into boxes labeled “Flower – Recycling” or “Vapes – Landfill Diversion.”

Consumers are asked to wrap the vape cartridges in individual bags before putting them into the box to make it easier for the recycler to sort the cartridges from the pens, which ultimately increases recyclability, Leung said.

The contents of the flower recycling box will be picked up and delivered to ReVital Polymers’ plastics recycling facility in Sarnia, Ontario, where post-consumer plastics are processed into engineered resin products.

The collected vape pens and vape cartridges are processed at Emterra Environmental’s partner electronics recycling facility, where the pens are separated from the cartridges for processing. The battery, plastic and metal are recovered from the vape pens, while the cartridges are handled as special waste and sent to an energy-from-waste facility for processing. All of this happens domestically in Canada, and no waste is shipped abroad.

“When the recycling is full on our end, there’s a bag inside,” Posner said. “We take it, put it in a box and book a pick-up online from Canada Post, and that’s it. It’s a real simple process. I think that’s what I really like about this program. If you look at successful programs, they’re really quite simple. There aren’t all of these steps that you have to adhere to.”

Emterra Environmental and Delta 9 have created educational Q&As to display on their websites and in-store to help both consumers and Delta 9’s retail staff understand the process and why it is important.

In the several days since the program’s launch, online and in-store response has been positive, Posner said.

“Our customers have been asking us for months when we’ll be introducing vape recycling or some kind of a vape program or … recycling program for cannabis packaging,” he said. “I think for a lot of them, they’re like, ‘Oh, good, it’s about time.’”

The long-term success of any diversion program requires the industry to participate, Leung added, and she and Posner hope that other LPs will take notice and join in.

“Delta 9 certainly led this initiative and I really hope they have set the example and other LPs will join because when industry acts as a whole, not only will the program be more cost-effective for everybody, but it will also show government that they don’t need to regulate the industry from a waste management perspective,” Leung said. “Industry is taking responsibility for the end-of-life management of cannabis and vape products and packaging, they’re being proactive, and I think government appreciates that. From a compliance or government affairs perspective and from achieving a cost-effective program, industry working together will result in the best outcome for all the players.”

Creating packaging with circular end-of-life solutions is not a competitive issue, she added, and should instead be something that the entire industry collaboratively addresses.

“As soon as Marshall and I started talking, it was very like-minded,” Leung said. “We saw that the industry is growing very quickly, and sometimes when an industry is growing very quickly, some of the elements of sustainability take a while to catch up. … I hope this is a launching pad for a nationwide program that will be able to manage all the cannabis packaging, as well as the vape pens and the vape cartridges. … I really hope that the industry hears this call to action and works together.”

The partnership between Delta 9 and Emterra Environmental relies on shared expenses, which will ultimately contribute to the long-term viability of the program, Posner said.

“The packaging is as diverse as the types of products that are held in them, and on the spectrum of really recyclable to terrible [and] not recyclable, the packaging will fall anywhere on that spectrum,” Leung said. “What we want to do in this program is to take a look at each brand and each type of packaging available and to be able to give some analysis and recommendations to the LPs to say, ‘This type of packaging is really good—can you transition more of your packaging to this type?’ Then, we’ll also be honest and say, ‘This type of packaging is not good, so can we work together and find some other alternatives?’”

“This was important to our employees, it’s important to our customers, and quite frankly, we think it’s a responsibility of any company,” Posner added. “Whether [it’s] a cannabis company or another that is producing waste and putting waste into the marketplace, [it should] have a solution on the backend or at least contribute to a solution on the backend to help deal with the waste.”

December 10, 2020 – Walker, Michigan – December 10, 2020 – PRESS RELEASE – Pipp Horticulture (a division of Pipp Mobile Storage Systems, Inc., backed by Novacap), a provider of space-saving, multi-level mobile cultivation systems, has announced that it has acquired Vertical Air Solutions LLC. Based in Santa Cruz, Calif., VAS is a leader in providing air circulation systems and related products to the global indoor vertical farming industry.

"We are excited to welcome the entire VAS team, led by innovative entrepreneurs and powered by a dedicated group of employees, to the Pipp family of companies," said Craig Umans, president and CEO, Pipp. "We have gotten to know the VAS team well in recent years, as they have been an integral part of our horticulture business, and their products are the ideal addition to our Mobile Vertical Grow Rack Systems. We look forward to integrating their leading technology into our continually expanding product offering to better serve the fast-growing vertical indoor farming industry."

“In 2017, when our ‘first of its kind’ airflow technology couldn’t fit into standard mobile racking configurations, Pipp Horticulture was prepared and willing to customize their system in order to accept ours. Our companies have since built a strong relationship and we’re excited to make the partnership official.” said James Cunningham, founder of VAS. “We look forward to continuing our focus on innovation, while providing top tier solutions for the vertical farming industry. Pipp’s 40 years of experience in equipment sales and manufacturing is exactly the support VAS needs in order to facilitate our growth into new markets.”

“The acquisition of VAS continues our mission of expanding our product offering to better serve the vertical farming industry. Pipp Horticulture brings a combination of the most knowledgeable and experienced Team along with the best products, competitive pricing and best in class customer service” said Umans.

This year, the oldest members of Gen Z turned 23. That means the legal cannabis industry is about to be bombarded with new customers—members of a distinct generation with new tastes and emerging cultural touchstones.

The HQ Cannabis Brand Affinity report was issued in December 2020 by Headquarters, a strategic advisory studio focused on driving growth for businesses and brands entering the California cannabis market, in conjunction with The Statement Group. The report lays out the lifestyle trends and spending power found among Gen Z (and millennial) customers.

Gen Z is defined as anyone born between 1997 and 2012-2015 (depending who you ask). As of January 2020, according to the report, Gen Z spending power clocked in at $143 billion.

So, what does the younger set gravitate toward? The big topics include: hip-hop and R&B, fashion, social influencers and gaming.

READ MORE: Gen Z and Millennials: A New Age of Cannabis Consumers 

“Gen Z and millennial lifestyle cannabis consumers—an often tough-to-reach consumer group—make up a significant share of the cannabis market today,” said Headquarters CEO Daniel Abrahami. “As we head into the holiday season and New Year, these consumers are only expected to take a greater share of the market. … Our hope is that cannabis brands leverage this proprietary data to gain the competitive advantage they’re looking for in this highly competitive space.”

Read the full report here or scroll down for an embedded version. 

With the rise of online ordering and cannabis delivery, it becomes incumbent upon dispensary owners to navigate their marketing messages toward the consumer. Often in 2020 and going forward, this can mean getting out of the traditional retail environment and providing a more immersive message. 

“From a psychographic standpoint, it’s always great to know which cannabis icons like Wiz Khalifa, Seth Rogen or Snoop Dogg resonate with Gen Z and millennial consumers, but those huge names are often not actionable for most budgets,” said The Statement Group Founder Cory Jones. “We dig deeper into the data to uncover everyone that your consumers love—from brands, artists and influencers, who range from 1,000 to 100 million followers. When you know exactly who your audience is interested in, you have a detailed roadmap to develop revenue-driving partnerships, paid media campaigns and social media and native content strategies. It takes the guesswork out of marketing and cuts wasted spends. When you align your brand with your audience’s interests, your engagement skyrockets and you build a deeper emotional connection and loyalty with your consumers that lasts years.”

Alignment is key. It’s not like dispensary owners need to partner with Wiz Khalifa to hone their messaging. Rather, these lifestyle trends might allow for more inventive strategies. Advertising + gaming. Music + customer loyalty programs.

As Gen Z grows up, these interests will only grow more important as a broad suite of intersections with the ever-expanding cannabis industry.

“They’re living their life the way they want to live it,” Jennifer McLaughlin, vice president of merchandising for cannabis operator Calyx Peak Companies, told us earlier in the year. “It’s all about the social interaction for them now—socially interacting with cannabis. Market to the fact they have these rich lifestyles. Market to what they’re doing in their lives.”

HQ Brand Affinity Report: Millennials GenZ Cannabis Consumers by sandydocs on Scribd

When Cannabis 2.0 launched in Canada with the sale of cannabis edibles, beverages and vape products, Marshall Posner, chief marketing officer for vertically integrated licensed producer Delta 9, said the company wanted to do more to ensure cannabis packaging and waste was being dealt with responsibly.

While packaging for dried flower and other cannabis products can generally be recycled as part of Canada’s Blue Box recycling program, many vape products are designated as special waste and cannot be recycled in the same way, meaning that they often end up in landfills.

“As we’ve seen these products become more prevalent in our stores, we felt we needed to do something in a responsible fashion to help address … where this packaging and cannabis waste is ending up,” Posner told Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.

This led Delta 9 to partner with Canadian recycling company Emterra Environmental to create a sustainable recycling program for cannabis packaging and disposable vape pens, as well as a landfill diversion program for vape cartridges, to help the Canadian cannabis industry transition to a circular economy.

Emterra Environmental was founded 44 years ago as a Vancouver-based recycling company.

“Unlike some of our industry peers, we don’t see ourselves as a waste disposal company or a landfill operator,” said Paulina Leung, VP of corporate strategy and business development for Emterra Environmental. Her mother started the company, which has since grown to 1,100 employees, 15 recycling plants and over 800 trucks. “Our true core is to be a recycler and to help ensure any kind of material we extract from the earth gets to be used over and over again.”

Emterra Environmental has moved beyond its initial role as a recycling and waste management company, Leung said, and now works directly with companies, such as Delta 9, that want to take responsibility for their products and work to increase sustainability in the marketplace.

“That’s where we have a similar ethos with Delta 9,” Leung said. “We’re both vertically integrated companies in our respective industries, and instead of waiting for government to tell us what to do with cannabis packaging and vape products, we found each other and we created this customer program … to help Delta 9 continue to grow in a sustainable way.”

Delta 9 launched in 2013 as one of Canada’s original LPs, and currently operates eight retail stores across Manitoba, Alberta and Saskatchewan in addition to its cultivation operations. The company will open a ninth store next week and aims to open another 11 retail locations by the end of 2021.

“We think of ourselves as a socially responsible company, and we’ve participated in a variety of green initiatives or recycling programs that the industry has started and stopped over the past year and a half,” Posner said. “We were excited about this and it seemed like a good fit for us to restart or relaunch a new program that would ultimately be sustainable for the industry.”

Leung added: “We saw other programs in the industry come and go, and in seeing those programs come and go, we saw that there were opportunities and ways to make our program more effective, more efficient, and also more authentic.”

The first component of the program allows consumers to recycle cannabis packaging similar to Canada’s well-established Blue Box program, while a second component focuses on landfill diversion for disposable vape cartridges and vape pens.

“Of course, landfilling is absolutely the worst,” Leung said. “Things stay in landfills forever—it never decomposes. So, the second option was to recover the energy from the cartridges. That’s what makes our program unique.”

The program accepts cannabis packaging and disposable vape cartridges and vape pens from any licensed producer, regardless of brand. Consumers can simply bring their empty containers and vape products to any Delta 9 retail location and deposit them into boxes labeled “Flower – Recycling” or “Vapes – Landfill Diversion.”

Consumers are asked to wrap the vape cartridges in individual bags before putting them into the box to make it easier for the recycler to sort the cartridges from the pens, which ultimately increases recyclability, Leung said.

The contents of the flower recycling box will be picked up and delivered to ReVital Polymers’ plastics recycling facility in Sarnia, Ontario, where post-consumer plastics are processed into engineered resin products.

The collected vape pens and vape cartridges are processed at Emterra Environmental’s partner electronics recycling facility, where the pens are separated from the cartridges for processing. The battery, plastic and metal are recovered from the vape pens, while the cartridges are handled as special waste and sent to an energy-from-waste facility for processing. All of this happens domestically in Canada, and no waste is shipped abroad.

“When the recycling is full on our end, there’s a bag inside,” Posner said. “We take it, put it in a box and book a pick-up online from Canada Post, and that’s it. It’s a real simple process. I think that’s what I really like about this program. If you look at successful programs, they’re really quite simple. There aren’t all of these steps that you have to adhere to.”

Emterra Environmental and Delta 9 have created educational Q&As to display on their websites and in-store to help both consumers and Delta 9’s retail staff understand the process and why it is important.

In the several days since the program’s launch, online and in-store response has been positive, Posner said.

“Our customers have been asking us for months when we’ll be introducing vape recycling or some kind of a vape program or … recycling program for cannabis packaging,” he said. “I think for a lot of them, they’re like, ‘Oh, good, it’s about time.’”

The long-term success of any diversion program requires the industry to participate, Leung added, and she and Posner hope that other LPs will take notice and join in.

“Delta 9 certainly led this initiative and I really hope they have set the example and other LPs will join because when industry acts as a whole, not only will the program be more cost-effective for everybody, but it will also show government that they don’t need to regulate the industry from a waste management perspective,” Leung said. “Industry is taking responsibility for the end-of-life management of cannabis and vape products and packaging, they’re being proactive, and I think government appreciates that. From a compliance or government affairs perspective and from achieving a cost-effective program, industry working together will result in the best outcome for all the players.”

Creating packaging with circular end-of-life solutions is not a competitive issue, she added, and should instead be something that the entire industry collaboratively addresses.

“As soon as Marshall and I started talking, it was very like-minded,” Leung said. “We saw that the industry is growing very quickly, and sometimes when an industry is growing very quickly, some of the elements of sustainability take a while to catch up. … I hope this is a launching pad for a nationwide program that will be able to manage all the cannabis packaging, as well as the vape pens and the vape cartridges. … I really hope that the industry hears this call to action and works together.”

The partnership between Delta 9 and Emterra Environmental relies on shared expenses, which will ultimately contribute to the long-term viability of the program, Posner said.

“The packaging is as diverse as the types of products that are held in them, and on the spectrum of really recyclable to terrible [and] not recyclable, the packaging will fall anywhere on that spectrum,” Leung said. “What we want to do in this program is to take a look at each brand and each type of packaging available and to be able to give some analysis and recommendations to the LPs to say, ‘This type of packaging is really good—can you transition more of your packaging to this type?’ Then, we’ll also be honest and say, ‘This type of packaging is not good, so can we work together and find some other alternatives?’”

“This was important to our employees, it’s important to our customers, and quite frankly, we think it’s a responsibility of any company,” Posner added. “Whether [it’s] a cannabis company or another that is producing waste and putting waste into the marketplace, [it should] have a solution on the backend or at least contribute to a solution on the backend to help deal with the waste.”