It has now been more than a year since cannabis has been legal in Canada, and the cannabis business has seen its ups and downs. One Exchange Traded Fund, Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF, is down 50 per cent since the end of March.   In spite of market fluctuations, Canadian licensed cannabis producers are expected to sell approximately $1.1 billion worth of legal pot in the first full year of legalization, according to an analysis of retail sales data by Cannabis Benchmarks.   Competing with black market cannabis is still the number one challenge for legal providers, both on cost and packaging.   One area that consumers aren't very happy with is all the packaging that surrounds even small quantities of legal pot. Unlike the black market, where a single-use plastic baggie is still typical, most government-approved packaging is often multi-layered and all plastic.   Cannabis packaging is the purview of the federal government, and local dispensaries, including B.C. government operations, have no say.   Castanet reached out to the B.C. Ministry of the Attorney General for comment on excessive cannabis packaging and was told rules regarding the packaging of cannabis products are established by the federal government.   "We want to minimize waste from cannabis packaging and encourage both consumers and retailers to recycle packaging... Cannabis regulations allow retailers to set up in-store cannabis packaging recycling programs, and we encourage them to do so," the ministry said.   Customers can also recycle cannabis packaging at home using the blue bin residential recycling program.   The global packaging market for cannabis products is expected to reach $25 billion by 2025, according to a report from Zion Market Research.   For now, Health Canada requirements call for cannabis packaging to be large enough to display labelling information, including warnings. It also has to be child-resistant, prevent contamination and keep the product dry.   B.C. retailers, including Hobo Cannabis Dispensary in Kelowna, say it's the number one complaint they receive from customers. "A little too much, absolutely," says manager Cole McCrea. "It's definitely the most frequent complaint that we hear – the size and scale of all the packaging being used as being unnecessary."   As the legal cannabis market matures, presumably there will be adjustments and greener packaging options down the road. For now, Tweed has partnered with Terracycle to launch Canada's first and largest cannabis packaging recycling program.   "When Tweed launched the partnership with TerraCycle, it was the first recycling program of its kind for cannabis packaging. Reaching this incredible milestone of over 1,000,000 pieces collected in less than one year demonstrates the value of the program," says Mark Zekulin, CEO, Canopy Growth Corporation, Tweed's parent company.   "Anybody can bring in any cannabis container to any (participating) store, we take it in here and ship out weekly."   The TerraCycle recycling program transforms the plastic pot containers into plastic pellets.