Become A Featured Company

The Cannabis Waste Problem: How Innovation Leads to Opportunity

Robin Lefferts

September 4th, 2019

App, Exclusive, News, Top News

One somewhat unforeseen issue that has arisen as a result of the spreading legalization of cannabis is related to waste, in a variety of forms. Growers use the flower of the plant but dispose of significantly more biomass containing stems, trimmed leaves, and sub-optimal flower.  Unfortunately, there are environmental implications surrounding the disposal of high volumes of cannabis waste. Additionally, there are concerns surrounding wastewater from cannabis operations and the potential for contamination of the environment and of municipal wastewater systems

Micron Waste Technologies Inc. (CSE: MWM) (OTC: MICWF) (Frankfurt: 7FM2) has developed and is refining an innovative technical solution to the solid waste disposal problem. Called the Cannavore™, Micron’s waste processing unit is a self-contained and automated shredder, digester, and effluent treatment system in a mobile shipping container. Put in cannabis waste, and out comes clean water and digested and denatured (no more active ingredients like THC) biosolids.

Micron Waste’s Cannavore™ cannabis waste and wastewater processing unit

Micron Waste recently received a Cannabis Research License from Health Canada, allowing the company to handle cannabis in-house at the Micron Waste Innovation Centre in Delta, BC. The license will enable the company to optimize the Cannavore™ system’s performance, even down to strain-specific microbe and enzyme blends. Perhaps more importantly, Micron is expanding its business as a result of the new license to focus on wastewater treatment and reclamation as well as on solid waste management.

The Problem(s)

According to VICE News, Health Canada documents from 2017 showed that for every kilogram of legal cannabis flower produced, licensed growers disposed of nearly eight kilograms of cannabis waste. Some companies compost the material (either onsite or by transporting to a compost site), a process that can be time-consuming, costly, and which doesn’t necessarily result in denatured cannabis waste. Some companies simply haul the waste off to a landfill or for incineration, a process that is also time-consuming, costly, and can add to greenhouse gas emissions and exacerbate landfill capacity concerns. Add to that the requirement that the Responsible Person in Charge (RPIC) or other senior officer from the producer needs to accompany and witness the destruction of the cannabis waste, and proper disposal clearly becomes an issue for cannabis producers.

The current methods also lead to another problem. Without properly denaturing the waste, active ingredients like THC can make their way through untreated wastewater, sewage, and runoff into waterways. Studies show that wastewater treatment plants remove as little as 31% of THC and its main metabolites, if the water is treated at all. Environment Canada estimated that nearly 120 million cubic meters of untreated sewage and runoff entered the nation’s waterways in 2016. The combination of ineffective and sometimes non-existent treatment can lead to concentration of THC in aquatic environments and oxidative stress in aquatic organisms.

On top of the THC-in-water concerns, there are other issues surrounding water use in the cannabis industry. These include the sheer volume of water needed to mass-produce the plant, the presence of pesticides in wastewater, and the effects fertilizers in wastewater can have on the aquifer.

The Micron Waste Solution(s)

Front and center for Micron Waste is the Cannavore™ waste processing system. Designed to conform with all Health Canada disposal regulations, the system offers several advantages over the current composting/landfill solutions. Since it is onsite, self-contained, and fully automated, while providing 24/7 data reporting on the amounts of waste being processed, it removes the requirement for an RPIC to accompany cannabis waste and witness its destruction. It works much more quickly than typical composting systems, completing its process in 24-48 hours as compared to weeks or months for composting. It also guarantees the denaturing process, meaning that there are no active ingredients like THC left, as opposed to the incomplete denaturing achieved by composting.

Watch a video demonstrating how the Cannavore™ processes waste:

The unit produces no odor and utilizes a closed loop system capable of returning reclaimed water back to facility operations. If producers choose not to recycle the water, the treated water, which meets municipal discharge standards, can be compliantly released into the sewer. The result is a very clean and easy-to-use system that checks off all the regulatory and environmental concern boxes.

Micron, which has a strategic partnership with Aurora Cannabis Inc., has been testing the system at its Mountain facility near Calgary since the summer of 2018. Micron also has a strategic partnership with BC Research Inc. for the development of both its Cannavore™ and Organivore™ food waste processing units.

Micron Waste is planning to leverage its newly-granted Cannabis Research License to create a comprehensive wastewater mitigation consulting service for the cannabis industry. Led by Chief Technology Officer and Founder Dr. Bob Bhushan and utilizing the company’s research at the Innovation Centre, Micron will be helping producers maximize their responsible water use while minimizing negative environmental impacts. The move could add another revenue stream for the company as it contracts out its cannabis facility wastewater treatment expertise and knowledge of compliance and environmental issues.

Dr. Bob Bhushan, Chief Technology Officer and founder of Micron Waste Technologies Inc.

The Upshot

With the recent receipt of the Cannabis Research License, Micron Waste’s capabilities have greatly increased. The company is now approved to handle cannabis in-house as it studies the most effective ways to eliminate unnecessary waste throughout the industry. Micron is also positioned to become the industry’s leading expert on responsible water use through its consulting division, offering testing services and solutions to cannabis producers. Its partnership with Aurora Cannabis, one of the world’s largest cannabis companies, provides valuable R&D feedback and insights into the best ways to service the cannabis sector’s cannabis waste needs, putting Micron in a class of its own as it commercializes both the product and service offerings. Interesting developments indeed in the Micron Waste universe, and worth following.

Click Here to Receive CFN Media’s Newsletter Every Week in Your Inbox

Disclaimer

CannabisFN.com is not an independent financial investment advisor or broker-dealer. You should always consult with your own independent legal, tax, and/or investment professionals before making any investment decisions. The information provided on https://cannabisfn.com(the ‘Site’) is either original financial news or paid advertisements drafted by our in-house team or provided by an affiliate. CannabisFN.com, a financial news media and marketing firm enters into media buys or service agreements with the companies that are the subject of the articles posted on the Site or other editorials for advertising such companies.  We are not an independent news media provider. We make no warranty or representation about the information including its completeness, accuracy, truthfulness or reliability and we disclaim, expressly and implicitly, all warranties of any kind, including whether the Information is complete, accurate, truthful, or reliable. As such, your use of the information is at your own risk. Nor do we undertake any obligation to update the items posted. CannabisFN.com received compensation for producing and presenting high quality and sophisticated content on CannabisFN.com along with financial and corporate news.

This article was published by CFN Enterprises Inc. (OTCQB: CNFN), owner and operator of CFN Media, the industry’s leading agency and digital financial media network dedicated to the burgeoning CBD and legal cannabis industries. Call +1 (833) 420-CNFN for more information.

About Robin Lefferts

Robin Lefferts has been involved in the legal cannabis industry since 2012, sometimes as an active participant and always as an interested observer.

Network Partners

Follow Us on Social Media

LinkedIn

About CFN Media Group

CFN Enterprises Inc. (OTCQB: CNFN) owns and operates CFN Media Group, the premier agency and financial media network reaching executives, entrepreneurs and consumers worldwide. Through its proprietary content creation, video library, and distribution via www.CannabisFN.com, CFN has built an extensive database of cannabis interest, assisting many of the world’s largest cannabis firms and CBD brands to build awareness and thrive. For more information, please visit www.cfnenterprisesinc.com.

Disclaimer: Matters discussed on this website contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. CFN Media Group, which owns CannabisFN, is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority and does not provide nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release. CFN Media Group, which owns CannabisFN, may from time-to-time have a position in the securities mentioned herein and will increase or decrease such positions without notice. The Information contains forward-looking statements, i.e. statements or discussions that constitute predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, estimates, or projections as indicated by such words as "expects", "will", "anticipates", and "estimates"; therefore, you should proceed with extreme caution in relying upon such statements and conduct a full investigation of the Information and the Profiled Issuer as well as any such forward-looking statements. Any forward looking statements we make in the Information are limited to the time period in which they are made, and we do not undertake to update forward looking statements that may change at any time; The Information is presented only as a brief "snapshot" of the Profiled Issuer and should only be used, at most, and if at all, as a starting point for you to conduct a thorough investigation of the Profiled Issuer and its securities and to consult your financial, legal or other adviser(s) and avail yourself of the filings and information that may be accessed at www.sec.gov, www.pinksheets.com, www.otcmarkets.com or other electronic sources, including: (a) reviewing SEC periodic reports (Forms 10-Q and 10-K), reports of material events (Form 8-K), insider reports (Forms 3, 4, 5 and Schedule 13D); (b) reviewing Information and Disclosure Statements and unaudited financial reports filed with the Pink Sheets or www.otcmarkets.com; (c) obtaining and reviewing publicly available information contained in commonlyknown search engines such as Google; and (d) consulting investment guides at www.sec.gov and www.finra.com. You should always be cognizant that the Profiled Issuers may not be current in their reporting obligations with the SEC and OTCMarkets and/or have negative signs at www.otcmarkets.com (See section below titled "Risks Related to the Profiled Issuers, which provides additional information pertaining thereto). For making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own advice and that of their own professional advisers. CFN Media Group, which owns CannabisFN, may be compensated for its Services in the form of cash-based and/or equity-based compensation in the companies it writes about, or a combination of the two. For full disclosure, please visit: https://www.cannabisfn.com/legal-disclaimer/. A short time after we acquire the securities of the foregoing company, we may publish the (favorable) information about the issuer referenced above advising others, including you, to purchase; and while doing so, we may sell the securities we acquired. In addition, a third-party shareholder compensating us may sell his or her shares of the issuer while we are publishing favorable information about the issuer. Except for the historical information presented herein, matters discussed in this article contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. CFN Media Group, which owns CannabisFN, is not registered with any financial or securities regulatory authority, and does not provide nor claims to provide investment advice or recommendations to readers of this release. CFN Media Group, which owns CannabisFN, may from time to time have a position in the securities mentioned herein and will increase or decrease such positions without notice. For making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own advice and that of their own professional advisers. CFN Media Group, which owns CannabisFN, may be compensated for its Services in the form of cash-based and/or equity- based compensation in the companies it writes about, or a combination of the two. For full disclosure please visit: https://www.cannabisfn.com/legal-disclaimer/.

Copyright © Accelerize Inc. · All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy · Legal Disclaimer

loading