Challenges and Opportunities for Cannabis Waste Tiffany Goldman - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Challenges and Opportunities for Cannabis Waste

Tiffany Goldman

The Health Center

Kerry Flickner

Blue Terra Waste Solutions

Grant Parsons

Alpine Waste & Recycling

John Whiteside

Industrial Hemp Recycling

Moderator:

Brandon Rhea

Native Roots

Native Roots Cannabis Company

• Founded in Colorado in 2009
• 19 dispensaries, 4 CBD wellness stores, 2 grows, 1 HQ in CO
• Vertically integrated with 46 unique strains & 45 infused products
• ~600 employees in Colorado
• First US company to receive a retail cannabis license in Canada

under the brand “Garden Variety”

• Participating member of the Denver Cannabis Sustainability Work

Group since 2017

• Robust community engagement and corporate social

responsibility program focusing on underserved medical cannabis community, youth prevention, hunger and homelessness

Cannabis Packaging and Recycling

Tiffany Goldman Co-Owner/COO

Challenges & Opportunities for Cannabis Waste

The Health Center

Who We Are:

• One of the first dispensaries to open January 1, 2014
• 3 Dispensaries and 3 Cultivation Facilities
• We work with different community organizations to

improve neighborhoods and build relationships within communities

How We Made A Change Sustainable Cannabis Packaging

• 2018 became aware of more

sustainable packaging for cannabis industry

• Made packaging change from mylar

to Pop Tops which can be recycled

The Health Center

• Offered discount for returned pop tops to get the word out

to our customers about our new recyclable packaging

• Our recycling increased by 120% in the first month

Waste Diversion and the Cannabis Industry

Grant Parsons Regional Sales Manager

Challenges & Opportunities for Cannabis Waste

• A. Recycling
• B. Organics
• 1. Composting

• Plastics (#1-7 & rigids)
• Cardboard
• Fibers (paper, mail, etc.)
• Polystyrene

• Plant and soil wastes

➢Must be mixed with other shredded organic mix

• Current Average Alpine Customer = 12%
• Current Average “Green” Alpine Customer = 58%
• Current Average Cannabis Customer = 18%

Waste or Not?
 Recycling Hemp Waste Into Usable Products

John Whiteside Owner/President

Challenges & Opportunities for Cannabis Waste

Job Creation/Workforce Development Hemp the new Economic Engine $$$ Planet Restoration through Soil Rejuvenation ___________________ Textiles & Papermills Agriculture & Composting Construction & Building Materials Renewable Energy & Biofuels

Textiles

Industrial Textiles vs Consumer Textiles Weaves, Cordage & Rope Clothing & Blankets Paper & Cardboard

Agriculture Products

Fibrous Materials includes: Stick, Stalks, Stems and Root Bulbs Livestock Bedding High Value Compost Pellets Wind Rows/Biochar

Construction Materials

Hempcrete Hemp Fiberboard Insulation Roofing/Shingles Hemp Bricks/Firelogs

Industrial Hemp:
 Hemp Fiber, Hemp Hurd & Hemp Seed

Modern Uses For Industrial Hemp

STALK: BAST FIBER

Industrial Textiles Consumer Textiles Paper Building Materials

ENTIRE PLANT:

Boiler Fuel Pyrolysis Feedstock

LEAVES:

HURDS (PULP) BUILDING MATERIALS

FLOWERS: THC SEEDS: Hempseed Oil, Food, Seed Cake

Industrial Products Hygiene Products Food Seed Cake

Growing cannabis produces a bounty of waste. “Waste” because growers’ operations are too busy meeting retail needs to be able to convert their stalks, stems and leaves into viable health or agricultural products.

WASTE CONSISTS OF FIBROUS MATERIAL GREEN WASTE SOIL

Everyday we all assume the Planet has what we need to survive

IHR

Industrial Hemp Recycling, LLC www.ihrecycling.com 720.432.1562

Waste is a Resource out of Place

Kerry Flickner Managing Director

Challenges & Opportunities for Cannabis Waste

• Current Waste Systems are Linear, Myopic,

Antiquated – Transportation Centric

• Environmental Degradation / GHG

(Goal - 80% by 2050)

• Inefficient resource extraction and energy use
• TAKE - MAKE – WASTE

The future of regulated cannabis industry must be catalyst for new models and transition away from existing linear disposal systems.

Landfill 101 (MSW)

• Specifically designed to protect the environment from

contaminants.

• 1976 RCRA – Subtitle D
• Monitoring systems check for any sign of groundwater

contamination.

• Meet stringent design, operation and closure requirements

established under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

MSW Landfill / “Dry Tomb”

Trash Compactor EPA - Structural Integrity

• Compress/Compact – Reduce Voids

and destabilization

• Limit Decomposition!
• Limit Oxygen – reduce combustion
• Restrict Water / Control Toxic

Leachate

• Long Term Stability
• Meet Post-Closure

Remediation / Cap

25

Landfill Reclamation / Repurposing

Organics - Current Solution Set

Commercial composting model legitimizes a linear system.

It is not achieving what it promises….a closed loop on short-cycle, low-value materials. We are not going to “compost” our way out of the environmental impacts of organic waste.

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it the superficial appearance of being right. ~Thomas Paine 1790

L

• c

a l m a n d a t e s

• n

w a s t e d i v e r s i

• n

P u b l i c d e m a n d f

• r

w a s t e d i v e r s i

• n

C

• s

t

• f

l a n d f i l l d i s p

• s

a l D e m a n d f

• r

c

• m

p

• s

t p r

• d

u c t s

Reality of Commercial Composting

End Market demand does not meet growing supply

Current Response to Organic Waste Composting

• End Markets
• Peninsula Compost Corp
• Cincinnati Compost

Centralized A.D.

• Fremont, Michigan
• Finance Structure
• Feedstock
• Heartland Biogas
• Feedstock
• Digestate Market
• Odor Management

TRANSITION TO:

• Cost savings re hauling
• Heat/Energy cost offsets
• Nutrient-rich bio digestate
• Zero Waste Objectives

Linear/Centralized End-market Volatility On-site/ Decentralized Myopic & Transportation Centric

$$ Compost

$$

Landfill

“WASTE”

Cultivation

O-AD (Extraction)

CBD $$

Raffinate

CBD Extraction & Operations

Cultivation

O-AD (Extraction)

RNG / CNG CBD $$

Raffinate

CBD Extraction & Operations

Cultivation

O-AD (Extraction)

RNG / CNG CO2 CBD $$

Raffinate

CBD Extraction & Operations

Cultivation

O-AD (Extraction)

RNG / CNG CO2 FERT CBD $$

Raffinate

CBD Extraction & Operations

Cultivation

Bio-Integration of Embedded Assets

Raffinate

Cannabis “Waste”

On-site Anaerobic Digestion

Assets:

Energy, Heat, CNG, Fertilizer, CO2

On-site / Local

Regeneration

Grow Op Cultivation

System Installation: Plug & Play

Modular: 1,000 – 5,000 lbs./day

System Performance


• Input Capacity

1,100 lbs./day

• Electricity Generation

55,000 kWh /yr

• Available Heat

~6,504 Thm/yr. (1 thm:100,000 BTU)

• Fertilizer Generated

150 tons/yr

Operator Value Proposition

• Reduction in waste removal cost$
• Carbon credit$
• Heat generation - offset cost$
• Onsite Electricity generation –
• ffset cost$
• Onsite C02 Generation Offset cost

$

• Gov Incentive$
• On-site renewable clean energy
• Closed loop, regenerative nutrient cycle
• Soil bio-sequestration of carbon
• 100% organics diversion
• Carbon / Methane GHG Mitigation

Community Value Proposition Responsible Waste Solutions

Economic Developme nt, Education, and Training 100 % Landfill Diversion 100 % Regenerativ e Industry Resiliency Carbon Sequestratio n and Soil Resiliency Regional and National GHG Mitigation Goals Posterity and Transition

Thank you.