Sustainable Recycling for Marijuana Packaging
In November 2016, California voters passed Proposition 64, which legalizes the recreational use of marijuana for adults over 21 in California. This change rolls out in January of 2018, posing a challenge for the California legislature, which must scramble to plan how to regulate this $7 billion industry before then. While there are many important issues that must be addressed, there are a few that require increased attention. As a society, we want to keep the psychoactive residues of marijuana out of the hands of children. Further, we need sustainable waste handling in place in order to minimize the impact of the marijuana industry on the California environment. Lastly, we need to ensure that the State of California is generating the maximum amount of taxable revenue possible from the passage of this legislation. What needs to be put into place to transform an industry that has operated without restrictions into one that has safety and sustainability procedures and is organized to pay taxes on the profits?
In the near future, Green Planet 21 will be using the Kanemiya machinery, a sustainable technology fully capable of processing the plastic packaging and wrappings used by the marijuana growers and the distributors to responsibly handle the waste. The Kanemiya machines will clean and shred the packaging in preparation for recycling, removing any remaining marijuana residue from the packaging in the process. Our chain of custody provides manufactures reliable security for problematic materials, eliminating the unintended public safety consequences associated with marijuana residue. For example, there have been horrible news stories detailing the accidental deaths of Colorado children who accidentally ate sweets containing doses of marijuana they did not understand. As a state that is in the process of regulating the marijuana market, we also need to control the possibility of someone stealing and scraping the bags for profit. Eliminating the entry of marijuana residue into the waste stream by cleaning the bags prior to disposal will also prevent un-taxable profiteering.
