A monthly look at some of the hits and misses in the packaging world from the viewpoint of Joe Public, Canadian Packaging magazine’s revolving columnists. From the July/August 2019 issue. When I first learned legal recreational cannabis use was to become a reality, like a true Checkout columnist, I wondered what the packaging paradigm would come to look like. Would we be forced to buy legal weed in pimped out packages covered with indulgent pot-memes? Or would dreadlock stereotypes give way to a more refined experience, like purchasing a fine wine or a well-aged cheese? After finally venturing out to purchase some legal weed, it turns out to be neither. Strict rules aimed at ensuring young people aren’t enticed into using cannabis have pretty much legislated the fun out of things from a packaging perspective. For once, package design has had nothing to do with the insatiable demand for a product that has led to shortages in availability and a bit of a backlash against the way some provincial governments have rolled legalized weed out to consumers. In the end, I’m glad it’s legal because it was the right choice for a mature society. That said, I wish the industry could have been given the creative leeway that its primary competitors—namely the wine, spirits and beer industries—enjoy to market their products. In lieu of exciting marketing options, most pot shops have had to rely on personal service and store set-up to gain that competitive edge. On my first visit to one of Toronto’s recently opened storefronts, the service and selection happened to be as bland as the pot packaging itself. In the end, I settled on a one-gram box of a strain called Harmonicproduced by AltaVie, the recreational offshoot of Markham, Ont.-based medical marijuana producer MedReleaf. The red-eyed salesperson handed it to me in a grey cardboard box, which is consistent with the government’s rule limiting packaging to a single, uniform color. A little larger than a deck of cards, the most prominent elements on the package were the “stop sign” logo that denotes it as a cannabis product, and the large black-on-yellow health warnings cautioning users about weed’s darker side. The only real packaging innovation I could detect was how AltaVie dealt with the childproofing requirement. As the handy infographic located on the top panel indicates, people need to simultaneously push in two tabs along the backside of the box in order to slide the inner plastic packaging free from the cardboard. Hopefully, this doesn’t get more difficult as users indulge. While regulations require the containers to be intentionally bland, the government did give producers some leeway on the size, shape and packaging materials that they can use. Fittingly, Smith Falls, Ont.-based producer Tweed Inc. have used this wiggle room to distinguish themselves and their products by offering dried flowers in black plastic cube containers. The 3.5-gram container I got (empty) from a friend was about the size and weight of a standard Rubic’s Cube, which uses a child guard mechanism similar to those found on prescription pill bottles. Each strain gets its own name and color association, such as the pale-pink Balmoral strain pictured here. The only real problem I initially had with the container was on the environmental level: I would loathe to see these cubes form yet another garbage island somewhere in the middle of the Pacific. To their credit, though, Tweed has joined forces with Toronto-based upcycling specialists TerraCycle Canada to create a recycling program ensuring cannabis containers get diverted from landfill sites. Once you’re done with your cube, you can take it back to a Tweed-partnered retailer and conveniently drop it in the recycling box on-site. If that’s too much trouble, you can set up an account, print up a UPS label, and send it to TerraCycle for free. From there, TerraCycle will see that the plastic is melted down and reused in some other fashion. Pot producers certainly face heavy restrictions, but those involved in the exploding paraphernalia market have obviously been getting creative. One visit to a local head shop and you’ll see a rainbow of products, from high-tech vaporizers to blown glass bongs and pipes of all shapes and sizes. What caught my eye, however, was the colorful display of rolling papers found in the display case of the Toronto Hemp Company, where I ended up purchasing two packs of the Trailer Park Boys-branded rolling papers from Jimmy Zee’s, the Port Coquitlam, B.C.-based distributor of so-called “Man Cave” items. If you’re unfamiliar with the Trailer Park Boys television show currently streaming on NetFlix, think of it as a crass modern-day cross between The Three Stooges black-and-white films from the 1930s and 1940s and the low-budget flicks put out in the late 1970s and early 1980s by the once-groundbreaking stoner comedy duo Cheech and Chong. With 32 leaves per pack, it’s a fun and gimmicky way to inject a bit of made-in-Canada humor into one’s pot experience. My wife and I look for just about any reason to celebrate—pot legalization, an important anniversary, the arrival of the weekend, etc. As many will agree, a real celebration requires a bit of bubbly to make it official, which is why a single-serve 200-ml bottle of Freixenet from Spanish bubbly producer Freixenet S.A. is a frequent fixture of our kitchen refrigerator. Styled after the standard-sized 750-ml bottle of Brut, these mini bottles are not really all that new, but for many occasions they offer just the right amount of celebratory cheer for couples who may not necessarily consume 750-ml of the sweet and highly carbonated libation or, worse still, just leave the leftovers in the fridge to go flat, or worse. With all that celebrating, it’s important to take care of ourselves and eat well, which is what lead me to discover Fresh City, billed as Canada’s largest city farm, located at Downsview Park in Toronto’s north end. With one storefront in the city, and another on the way, the company, along with its network of member farmers and its 3,000-square-foot greenhouse, relies mainly on its delivery service and pick-up hubs to provide consumers with locally produced organic options on a year-round basis. I recently tried their delicious gluten-free, vegan Falafel salad jar, which arrived on my doorstep in a reusable, insulated tote bag, along with a cooler pack, to keep everything fresh. Layered with quinoa, chickpeas, grape tomatoes, cucumbers and falafel—and topped with a delectable tahini dressing—this healthy option is perfect right out of the jar or for sharing. shared with others. Once done I just leave the delivery tote with the rinsed out jars on my doorstep for pick-up on my next delivery date.  

Converse's new Renew Chucks are composed of either canvas crafted from 100-per-cent recycled polyester made from discarded plastic bottles, upcycled denim or a composite yarn made from the company's cotton-canvas waste mixed with polyester.   In July, Zara announced its new sustainability initiatives, including recycling packaging and creating a new eco-conscious line called Join Life. Not everyone was enthusiastic about the news. Eco-activists such as Livia Firth have railed against mega-brands such as Zara and H&M for adopting, or setting goals to adopt, sustainable measures when the ideal solution would be to not produce so many, or any, mass items at all.   But having access to more mindfully made clothing is better than not having it, so there is encouragement to be found in the sustainability decisions being made by large-scale brands, slow-moving as they may be.   Dr. Elizabeth C. Kurucz is an associate professor of leadership and organizational management in the College of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph who focuses on businesses implementing organizational changes toward more sustainable business practices. She says that for both businesses and consumers, more mindful practices were slow to be developed and adopted, and even more so, standardized and vetted.   In the early days of her doctoral research, in the late 1990s, Kurucz says, “There were certain companies that were trying to do well by doing good, but it wasn’t viewed broadly as a strategic business advantage for organizations; it was more a corporate social-responsibility viewpoint of, ‘We’ve got to do the right thing.’ But often those companies were just continuing to do their bad business practices while doing some nice sort of philanthropic things on the side.” Kurucz contrasts that with today, when “we’re looking at organizations who are reorienting their whole business strategy around sustainable-development goals or societal-level goals.”   The Sustainable Apparel Coalition was founded in 2012 after a meeting of minds at Patagonia and Walmart, and it has since launched a business toolkit, the Higg Index, which allows big brands to better understand the scope of their social and environmental impact. “Part of the issue is the tools weren’t there to be able to identify all of the multifaceted impacts, environmentally and socially, of the supply chain,” Kurucz says about one reason why sustainability has become a manufacturing approach – and a marketing focus.   Nina Marenzi, founder and director of the Sustainable Angle, an organization that provides advisory services and runs the Future Fabrics Expo in London, has seen an increase in eco-minded activity among larger mass brands. “We’ve certainly noticed quite a few differences in the last 12 to 18 months,” she says. “I think a lot of these companies that looked at [sustainability] and didn’t really move because they kept thinking ‘Oh, this might go away,’ or they didn’t have the resources or they struggled with convincing the board … all of a sudden, it really caught momentum and now they’re struggling to keep up.”   But there’s the matter of resources to contend with. “It does take a long time to change your supply chain, or to improve your supply chain, and there’s a lot of homework to do,” she says. “And if you haven’t done that by now, then you’re not going to have a product that is going to come out that is having a lower environmental impact for another year.”   Some might argue this is all too little, too late. It’s hard to be optimistic when you read current statistics about carbon emissions and how much plastic is in the sea. While Uniqlo currently has a sustainable denim initiative, there’s not one that addresses the myriad other product categories it produces. The “beach bottle” announced this spring by hair-care brand Herbal Essences and waste-management company TerraCycle is, at this point, made of only 25-per-cent recycled plastic. And H&M has committed to using 100-per-cent sustainable materials by the year 2030, but that’s 11 years away – which is the time cited at a recent UN General Assembly meeting that we have left to prevent irreversible damage from climate change. All these ideas are the start of more sustainably minded production, yet they also shed light on how much more work is needed to move such large companies over to greener pastures. Converse had a bunch of its employees come in with items to repurpose as a way to acknowledge the potential of reused materials. These sneakers were made from a repurposed dress.   Converse, the Nike-owned brand that launched the much-loved Chuck Taylor All Star sneaker more than 100 years ago, announced its new Renew collection this summer. With three different approaches to more sustainable design and manufacturing, Renew’s Chucks are composed of either canvas crafted from 100-per-cent recycled polyester made from discarded plastic bottles, upcycled denim sourced in partnership with London-based vintage retailer Beyond Retro, or a composite yarn made from Converse’s own cotton-canvas waste mixed with polyester. Polyester, however, is a material that makes many environmentally minded people such as Marenzi cringe and the shoe brand says it’s exploring additional blends for the line. “I think from a materials perspective, we’ve already been making a lot of advances,” Converse’s director of materials, Jessica L’Abbe, says about Renew’s initial fabrications. “Even [our] standard canvas is sustainably sourced, so we were already really working to make a lot of our ingredients better.”   L’Abbe also addressed the use of materials such as glitter in the collaboration collection with fashion brand J.W. Anderson, since it’s been highlighted as a major eco-no-no. “[Even] when using non-renewable materials, there are always ways to make things better,” she says. “Following Nike Inc. and a lot of the processes that they already have set up, we’re always … building our library up to have better ingredients in it.”   This focus on better has long been championed by Swedish lifestyle giant IKEA. “[Sustainability] is not a new concept for us,” Melissa Mirowski, its Canadian sustainability specialist, says. “It’s always been at the heart of the business.” In addition to adopting more sustainable manufacturing processes – the company committed to using wood from 100-per-cent sustainable sources by 2020 and reached that goal in 2017 – the home-focused brand has developed products that allow consumers to lead more sustainably focused lives themselves. Mirowski cites IKEA’s Kungsbacka kitchen cabinetry as an example, which is made from recycled wood and covered with a plastic foil made from recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles. [At] end of life, you basically peel off the foil front and it’s fully recyclable,” she says.   Such a product journey is also a useful marketing angle, Nina Marenzi says: “These days, everyone talks about needing to have authentic value. Customers really want to associate themselves with the products and with what the brands stand for.”   Many behemoth brands have far to go as they launch environmentally and socially minded measures and prove they’re not just paying lip service, but shoppers also have to do their part when it comes to digging in to decision-making, using their purchase power to ultimately dictate what messages and companies they believe in – and want to buy into.

Community advocacy played a key role in prompting Owen Sound to launch a pilot project aimed at snuffing out cigarette-butt litter in its downtown. “A lot of residents in the city have been concerned with seeing all the butts laying around,” said environmental services supervisor Cassandra Cesco. The city has installed 10 cigarette waste receptacles at various locations throughout the core as part of the new project. All cigarette butts, filters, loose tobacco, rolling papers and other acceptable smoking-related waste collected in the silver containers will then be shipped to TerraCycle for recycling. Cesco acknowledged the group Owen Sound Waste Watchers, whose members have been picking up cigarette butts in the community for the past year and sending them to TerraCycle, came up with the idea for the project and provided the first receptacle. The city then agreed to take on the initiative by creating a plan, purchasing nine more receptacles and installing them, she said. Cesco said the city and group worked together to determine the best locations for the containers. The intention, she said, is to “maintain and beautify” the city’s downtown and reduce the environmental impact associated with chemicals found in cigarettes. Laura Wood of the Waste Watchers group said she’s delighted the city has launched the receptacle project. “I think the significance is it was a group effort of citizens and municipal employees who came together and said this is something that needs to be done and worked together on it,” she said. “There still is a long way to go, of course, with the education around the proper disposal of cigarette butts. So this is certainly not the be all and end all of this process, but I think it’s certainly a fine beginning.” Wood said the project provides smokers with an option, which in most cases in Owen Sound didn’t exist before, to properly dispose of their butts. “During our waste pickups, we very rarely encountered any receptacles in the city,” she said. TerraCycle says 65 per cent of all cigarette butts are littered and tobacco products make up 38 per cent of all roadside litter. The Owen Sound Waste Watchers, which holds regular trash pickup events, has collected and shipped to TerraCycle tens of thousands of cigarette butts since its inception. The group also provides butt disposal cans to businesses and organizations, and then returns to collect the discarded materials. The group is providing 12 cans to the Georgian Bay Folk Society this weekend, so they are available at the Summerfolk Music & Crafts Festival. Waste Watchers members will be on site to empty the cans. Anyone interested in receiving a can can contact the group at oswastewatchers@gmail.com or via their Facebook page, Owen Sound Waste Watchers. Cesco said funding for the city’s receptacle program came from its recycling budget. TerraCycle, an American company with a facility in Fergus, offers free recycling programs that are funded by brands, manufacturers and retailers to help divert hard-to-recycle waste from landfill. The company separates cigarette butts by material. Residual tobacco and paper are composted, while the filter – made of a white synthetic fibre called cellulose acetate – is cleaned and melted into pellets. Those pellets are then combined with other plastics and used for new products like ashtrays, shipping pallets or plastic lumber.

The City is pleased to announce there are now cigarette butt receptacles located across the downtown area. The intention is to maintain and beautify our Downtown Core Area and to reduce the environmental impact associated with chemicals found in cigarettes. Acceptable material that can go in the receptacles include:

1. Extinguished cigarettes
2. Cigarette filters
3. Loose tobacco pouches
4. Outer plastic packaging
5. Inner foil packaging
6. Rolling papers
7. Ash

All acceptable materials collected in these receptacles will be recycled through Terracycle. Terracycle sterilizes the waste, then shreds and separates it by material type. Tobacco and paper are composted and filters are turned into plastic pellets. These pellets are used in a variety of industrial applications, including the production of recycled plastic products. For more information, please click here. See map below for locations of all the cigarette butt receptacles.

If you’re an educator who’d like to keep all those markers your kids use out of landfills, take note!   There’s a free recycling program from Crayola that allows students to collect and repurpose used markers from classrooms in K-12 schools across the country and in parts of Canada. The Crayola ColorCycle initiative is designed to help both teachers and students learn about sustainability and make a positive impact on the environment.   To participate, you simply need to sign up your school, collect markers, and send them in. The four easy steps are outlined on the ColorCycle web page.   First, inform your school’s administrators or parent-teacher organization about the program. Any school, kindergarten through 12th grade, in the contiguous 48 United States, is eligible to participate. Some areas of Canada are eligible as well. You can check if your Canadian postal code is covered here.  An adult representative can register the school to participate online. Next, set up a collection site where people can drop off used markers at your school. The markers should then be packed in a cardboard box that has minimal outer markings. Only include markers in the box. All brands of markers are accepted, so they don’t just need to be Crayola markers.   Ensure that each box weighs about 8-10 pounds, and secure it with packing tape. Crayola suggests a minimum of 100 markers and a maximum of 40 pounds per box. The packages should be affixed with a FedEx shipping label, which you can print online. They will be picked up by FexEx Ground, with shipping costs covered by Crayola.   Markers are often not allowed by local community recycling efforts, which more commonly collect paper, plastic, and glass. That makes this program all the more welcome. So what happens to the markers? According to Crayola, the recyclables are sent to a facility that converts old markers into energy as well as wax compounds for asphalt and roofing shingles.   “The process repurposes the entire marker, regardless of the different kinds of plastics or how they are assembled,” the FAQ says.   One school participating in the program is Geneva Middle School in Geneva, Illinois, where a group of students known as “The Green Team” is collecting markers through the program. They also have a deposit box to collect empty chip bags in school’s cafeteria. The club was organized last year in a sixth-grade science class.   Last month, the club brought their first load of empty chip bags to Gerald Ford Subaru in North Aurora, which has a recycling box for TerraCycle, a private recycling business. The school plans to continue the program when the school year gets underway again. If your classroom needs new markers, teachers can purchase Crayola Classpacks, which include a color palette of educator-preferred hues, as well as other bulk items at affordable prices.   We hope plenty of schools are signing up this year!  

On Friday (Aug. 9), interns with the Downtown Surrey BIA spent part of the afternoon collecting and counting cigarette butts from people in the community.   Area enhancement intern Jeanette Lim said the idea was to combat cigarette waste, with a slogan of “be your city’s superhero.” Some of the interns dressed up in some familiar superhero costumes such as Captain Marvel and Spider-Man.   “Our goal is to get cigarette butts off the streets because that is the number one most littered item in the world,” Lim told the Now-Leader during the event, adding that “litter is a huge problem in downtown Surrey.”   “So we’re trying to tackle that issue.”   For the cigarette buy-back, people could get five cents per butt, with a cap of $50 per person.   The event also included cash prizes. The person to collect the most cigarette butts would win $150, second place was $125, third place was $100, fourth place was $75 and fifth place was $50.   “We had this one guy come with a massive bag and it was a lot of butts. We didn’t even bother counting them, we just gave him the capped money,” she said.   While the event was supposed to last four hours, Lim said they closed up early because they ran out of cash.   Lim said it was mostly people living on the streets who came through with cigarette butts, “which is a good thing because they need the money as well and they can help clean up the city.”   The Downtown Surrey BIA received a $500-grant from the City of Surrey for the pilot project, and Lim said the hope is to be able to bring it back next year on a slightly larger scale.   She said Victoria and Vancouver have both done cigarette buy-back programs.   “I’m hoping that if more cities get on this idea then they will be more aware of the problem of cigarette butts being littered. It’s small and it’s not very noticeable, but it’s damaging.”   After collecting the butts, Lim said they will then be sent to TerraCycle.   The company has a cigarette waste recycling program that recycles all parts of the extinguished cigarettes, cigarette filters, cigar stubs, plastic packaging, inner foil packaging, rolling paper and ash.   According to TerraCycle, the cigarettes and packaging “are separated by composition and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled industrial products, such as plastic pallets.” The ash and tobacco are separated out and composted in a “specialized process.”   Also this month, the BIA has been handing out “pocket ashtrays.”   “The idea is that instead of putting your cigarette butts on the floor, you put it in this reusable bag or pouch, and then when it’s full, you empty it into the garbage can instead of having it all around the city,” Lim said.   The cigarette buy-back initiative was part of the city’s Love Where You Live program.  

Are compostable containers a fix for the cannabis packaging conundrum?

Excessive, wasteful, overkill and harmful. These are just some of the words used to describe cannabis packaging in Canada—and for good reason.   Ever since cannabis legalization last fall, product packaging has been a consistent target of criticism given its environmentally unfriendly overuse of plastic and difficulty to recycle with other plastics.   The same federal government that recently pledged to ban single-use plastics also enforces strict cannabis packaging regulations, which licenced producers (LPs) have argued make it difficult to package their products ecologically.   Here’s a guide to cannabis packaging rules and one company’s proposed solution to help keep containers from ending up in landfills.     In Canada, cannabis must be packaged in materials that are a solid, opaque colour and prevent contamination of cannabis. The containers must also be tamper-evident, meaning one can see if someone has opened it before it’s sold, and meet the requirements of child-resistant packaging under Canada’s Food and Drug Regulations.   Additionally, containers must bear the Standardized Cannabis Symbol (red and white THC cannabis leaf symbol), prevent contamination, keep cannabis dry and contain no more than the equivalent of 30 g of dried cannabis.   The federal packaging rules are strict and extensive; making sure that containers can be easily recycled seems not to have received the same rigour.   Mark Butler, policy director of Halifax-based Ecology Action Centre, says the centre is calling for the federal government to have the statutory power to regulate plastics and to have plastics listed as a toxin in the Canadian Environmental Protection Act.   André Gagnon, communications advisor at Health Canada, says that licensed cannabis processors are free to design their packaging and labelling as they see fit. “Health Canada welcomes licensed processors to use innovative and environmentally sound packaging approaches, provided the requirements in the regulations are satisfied. To be clear, there is no regulatory requirement under the Cannabis Act that stipulates that plastic must be used by cannabis processors,” Gagnon told The GrowthOp.   How long current packaging lasts “really depends on the type of plastic and what it is exposed to, such as air, water, light or a combination of these elements” Butler says. If deposited in a landfill, however, plastic packaging is unlikely to biodegrade.   “It doesn’t go away, it just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces and enters the food chain. And, ultimately, nobody knows the exact lifespans in the natural environment.”  

Are recycling initiatives enough?

  Emma Baron, founder of Milkweed, a brand offering contemporary cannabis accessories, points out that recyclable options for cannabis packaging are in their infancy. For example, the TerraCycle (a company offering free recycling programs funded by brands, manufacturers and retailers worldwide) and Tweed Inc. (a cannabis retailer owned by Canopy Growth Corporation) collection plan is currently unavailable in Quebec, Nova Scotia and the territories. The program was not rolled out all at once, but there are plans to expand nationwide, notes a statement from Canopy Growth.   “We’re happy to see that an effort is being made, but we’ll need to see buy-in from a critical mass of LPs (licensed producers) and provincial governments to see a recycling program grow,” Baron contends.   https://youtu.be/A42fWZ193RI   Since not all cannabis containers are recyclable in every municipality, Baron suggests that glass is a better alternative, since it is 100 percent recyclable and preserves product longer than porous plastic.   “Currently, the only thing holding the industry back from using glass is regulations,” Baron says. Cannabis packaging must be opaque and solid in colour, and tinted or coloured glass that allows some light to travel through them.   Rebecca Brown, cannabis marketer and founder of Crowns Consulting, says that beyond recycling programs, cannabis companies should be seeking out and investing in innovative packaging—packaging that is naturally sourced, biodegradable and designed for multi-use.   “We are at a moment in time where the discussion around single-use plastic is at peak levels, so I think the environmental impact should have been a more heavily weighted consideration as the regulations were being made,” Brown says.  

Land to brand to land

  Seeing the amount of plastic being used to package small amounts of cannabis, Leamington, Ont.-based Competitive Green Technology(CGTech) teamed up with Toronto’s Hansen Packaging to create their Made in Canada, Naturally cannabis jars.   The Compostable Jars brand was launched in July, but the company hopes its containers, made of compostable biopolymers, hemp waste bio-carbon and reinforcement compostable additives, will reduce the plastic waste in the industry.     Atul Bali, CEO of CGTech, says the company’s philosophy is predicated on using waste streams of agricultural produce—in this case, cannabis. “There’s a fair amount of waste being generated in the [cannabis] industry in terms of the non-usable (the part of the plant that is not used for cannabis consumption) “part of the plant [called hemp stalk],” Bali says. “So what we do is use that waste, extract the carbon from it and that’s why we say our jars are made out of renewable resources,” he notes.   Luz Elena Valdes, sales and marketing manager at Compostable Jars, claims that the renewably made jars comply with all packaging regulations, are much lighter than current packaging and are designed to be composted rather than recycled. Compostable, as opposed to biodegradable or recyclable, typically means that a product is capable of disintegrating into natural elements in a compost environment, leaving no toxicity in the soil, within 90 days.   “To package about three to seven g of cannabis, existent containers use 70 to 80 g of packaging made from non-renewable resources,” Valdes says. Her company’s product, uses “20 g of biocomposite resins made from renewable resources,” she reports.     The jars are not yet available; Compostable Jars is currently sending out product samples and starting meet-and-greets with cannabis companies.   Bali says the Ontario-based Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI) has certified the company’s resins, meaning they break down and become compost within 84 days. The jars themselves are currently undergoing testing for BPI certification.  

When can changes to packaging be expected?

  So how long will it take for new alternatives to be introduced and to take hold in Canada’s cannabis industry? Certainly not overnight, since less expensive, heavy, plastic pharmaceutical containers are readily available.   “It’s not a question of whether or not it’s easier to package with plastic, but it’s about the technology,” Bali says. “Because we have this unique technology, we just had to introduce something for the cannabis industry.”   Though consumers may not see compostable packaging options in pot shops just yet, Brown predicts the industry will respond to market pressure and it will do what it needs to do to win loyalty from customers.  

For example, the TerraCycle (a company offering free recycling programs funded by brands, manufacturers and retailers worldwide) and Tweed Inc. (a cannabis retailer owned by Canopy Growth Corporation) collection plan is currently unavailable in Quebec, Nova Scotia and the territories. The program was not rolled out all at once, but there are plans to expand nationwide, notes a statement from Canopy Growth

For example, the TerraCycle (a company offering free recycling programs funded by brands, manufacturers and retailers worldwide) and Tweed Inc. (a cannabis retailer owned by Canopy Growth Corporation) collection planis currently unavailable in Quebec, Nova Scotia and the territories. The program was not rolled out all at once, but there are plans to expand nationwide, notes a statement from Canopy Growth.