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Cannabis has a waste problem, and it isn’t just the plastic, single-use packages. Cultivators and processors find themselves with tons of excess, low quality, or spent plant material on hand every year. Unfortunately, it’s both challenging and costly to dispose of.
When it comes to cannabis cultivation, every penny counts for the bottom line. So what if there were a way to reduce operational expenditures related to this waste but make money from it?
Nextleaf Solutions recently announced a new technology that processes spent cannabis biomass to reduce landfill waste and extracts even more profits from previously unusable plant material. It’s just one of the latest technologies striving to make the cannabis industry greener.
What To Do With All That Excess Weed?
Just how much cannabis is going to waste in legal markets? The numbers are still staggering. For example, Canadian producers disposed of 468,302 kilograms (over 516 tons) of unsold products between 2018 and 2021. In 2021 alone, the destroyed product accounted for approximately 21 percent of all production, highlighting the ongoing issue of waste in the industry.
According to MJBiz Daily, most of these products weren’t destroyed due to contamination or other factors that would render them unfit for consumption. Instead, industry sources indicate that overproduction, clogged sales channels, and low-quality outputs are the primary reasons for the high levels of waste. This problem isn’t unique to Canada; other legal markets, such as Washington State and California, have also struggled with overproduction in recent years.
Unlike other regulated markets like alcohol, where products can be preserved for years or even decades, cannabis flower begins to degrade within months, making long-term storage challenging. This issue is particularly pronounced in the still-developing markets across North America, where the industry has not yet stabilized, leading many producers to face both oversupply and the costly problem of disposing of unsold products.
Cannabis Waste Disposal: A Growing Cost for Producers
Whether flower requires disposal because of oversupply, quality, or aging, it’s a loss for the producer. Layered on top of the lost sales are the costs related to the disposal of a highly regulated and legally ‘hazardous’ material.
Although specifics vary from one jurisdiction to another, most cannabis plant waste isn’t suitable for municipal landfills or composting facilities. It requires special equipment and processing, which all comes with additional transportation and dumping costs.
But what if cannabis plant waste represents a green opportunity? Authors Talia Gordner and Ralph Cuervo-Lorens suggest as much in a 2020 Environmental News Bulletin. Even low-quality cannabis biomass still contains valuable compounds, including THC and CBD. So why should unsellable cannabis flower and other plant material simply go to the landfill or composter?
Several start-up cannabis waste management services are tackling this problem head-on, from hemp biofuel to in-vessel digestion (specialized composting).
New Extraction Technology Reduces Cannabis Waste and Processes More Efficiently
Nextleaf Solutions is a federally regulated manufacturer of cannabis vapes and oils and remains one of the largest holders of cannabis technology patents worldwide. In its most recent development, the company announced an updated patent in June 2023 that further enhances their innovative approach to cannabinoid extraction and waste management. This cutting-edge technology not only allows Nextleaf to “maximize its cannabinoid molecule yield, reduce waste destined for landfills, and create a new business vertical at minimal cost,” but it also introduces improvements in sustainability and efficiency.
The advanced process involves heating spent cannabis, which would otherwise be discarded, in multiple stages. Each stage effectively releases residual cannabinoids, thereby increasing the efficacy and profitability of the extraction process.
Moreover, the technology produces “carbon with a desired porosity level,” commonly known as activated charcoal. This activated charcoal is highly sought after in various industries, including air purification, metal extraction, medicine, and sewage treatment.
Nextleaf’s latest extraction and waste management technology enhances the extraction process by optimizing yields from already processed or lower-quality cannabis and converts what was once waste into a valuable second revenue stream. This innovation exemplifies how cannabis waste can be transformed into a green and profitable opportunity.
The Future: Turning Cannabis Waste to Cannabis Profit
Nextleaf Solutions’ announcement isn’t the only waste-to-profit innovation happening in the cannabis space. There is also potential for the use of cannabis plant biomass in industrial materials like paper, textiles, composites, bioplastics, etc. Or an aquaponics facility that transforms all organic waste into compost on-site, which gets reused in cultivation?
Any approach that closes the loop and prevents cannabis biomass from heading to landfills and municipal composters reduces the costs for the producers. But, as Nextleaf and other companies are making clear, there are ways to take that one step further, to transform this waste in ways that make it profitable.
