Alberta farmers now have recycling locations for grain bags and twine

Feb 5, 2020 | 5:02 PM

MOOSE JAW, SASK. –The winter months are usually the slow time for farmers and they take advantage of the time to do equipment maintenance or other chores, such as recycling.

For some Alberta farmers, this is the first time they’ve had an option to recycle grain bags and twine, instead of sending them to the landfill or burning them.

Cleanfarms undertook farm plastic waste studies and found Alberta farmers generate as much as 2500 tonnes of low-density polyethylene grain bags and up to 3000 tonnes of polypropylene twine annually. All of this is available for recycling.

Under the new recycling program, led by the Agricultural Plastics Recycling Group and operated by Cleanfarms, farmers will find it more convenient to locate places that will take empty grain bags and twine for recycling.

The pilot is being funded through a grant from the Government of Alberta and administered by Alberta Beef Producers.

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Farmers wanting to recycle grain bags, need to shake them to remove debris, roll and tightly secure them with twine. Some collection sites have rollers and compactors available so farmers should contact sites for information beforehand.

Twine should not be mixed with any other plastics and needs to be shaken to remove debris, placed loose in a Cleanfarms recycling bag and tied closed. Cleanfarms recycling bags are available at rural municipalities and ‘Alberta Ag-plastic. Recycle It!‘ collection sites.

For year one of this three-year pilot, Cleanfarms has about 20 collection sites throughout the province. Most are currently taking rolled, tied grain bags of any size, and twine for recycling. Some, however, just take grain bags and a few take only twine.

The full roster of collection locations and what they take can be found on Cleanfarms.ca

by Dori Modney