Purplefarm Genetics is going green.The company is working with WTTEC Systems Inc. to adopt new waste disposal technologies at its Canadian facility.

“We are truly excited about partnering with WTTEC, a company with the ability to reinvent the way the cannabis industry approaches its environmental impact,” said Jonah Clifford, director at Purplefarm Genetics. “As the cannabis market in Canada matures, we can clearly see the need for innovative solutions to environmental problems within cannabis operations,” Clifford said.

“Environmental stewardship in cannabis can no longer be optional, it is an ethical obligation.”

Since the flower is the only part of the marijuana plant sold to consumers, the production of tonnes of cannabis yields even more tonnes of biological waste, including leaves, stems, stalks and rootballs (the masses formed by the roots of the plant). Some forecasts put Canada’s cannabis waste at about 6,000 tonnes annually.

“Anything that doesn’t go into the dried flower, essentially, has to be destroyed in a fashion where Health Canada makes sure there isn’t any odour, or any (recognizable) properties (of the plant),” such as incineration or mixing with other substances, said industry expert Ivan Ross Vrana.

But an unsustainable amount of this waste ends up in landfills, said WTTEC president Jacob Brown. “There is a clear need to develop better solutions,” Brown  said.

“We are proud to be implementing, in partnership with Purplefarm Genetics, the first cannabis waste disposal system in Canada that effectively and cleanly eliminates all organic and non-organic waste, which, in turn, diverts 100 per cent of all materials from landfills,” he added.

WTTEC noted that the company uses patented technology to convert waste from the plant into biochar and scrub particle emissions through a process that “sequesters carbon while producing a rich bioproduct that is able to be reintroduced to the cultivation process, closing the loop.”

The process is Health Canada approved, the company noted, and will greatly reduce and streamline the disposal process.