WINNIPEG – A group that collects used pesticide containers from Manitoba farmers has also collected kudos from the province for its contribution to sustainable development.
The Association for a Clean Rural Environment, or ACRE, was recently recognized for co-ordinating the pickup of 80 percent of containers used in the province last year.
ACRE uses funds collected by the Crop Protection Institute of Canada, which represents pesticide manufacturers and distributors.
Plastic containers are recycled into fence posts or burned in energy-recovery plants. Metal containers are recycled into rebar, used to reinforce concrete.
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The ACRE board includes members from Keystone Agricultural Producers lobby group, municipalities and consumer and environmental groups.
The award came in the wake of an article in a Winnipeg newspaper which was critical of the Crop Protection Institute’s dealings with farmers.
ACRE chair Bill Galloway and institute representative Paul Cook disputed the article.
A spokesperson at the institute said she is aware that farmers were concerned about funding allocation to each province once a switch to a national funding system is implemented. She said each province will be affected differently, since each province differs in its handling of containers.
ACRE and the institute are in the process of finalizing the new funding structure. Rather than giving the fund $1 per container shipped to the province, they said the institute would pay for ACRE’s operating costs, now $600,000 per year.
“There isn’t really a problem from our perspective,” said Galloway. “I don’t know where … this flurry of interest came from.”
ACRE has built a surplus of $1 million over the past four years. Galloway said it’s because operating costs are lower than expected and at the beginning of the program there were low rates of container return. The institute wants ACRE to use up the surplus.
Cook said the institute wants to avoid future surpluses and is developing similar agreements with other groups across the country so the program is run on a more national basis.
He said more than 2.9 million containers were collected in programs across Canada last year.
