Saskatchewan will continue its grain bag recycling pilot project for one more year as it works toward establishing a permanent program.
Simply Ag Solutions will receive $200,000 from the federal-provincial Growing Forward 2 program to continue collecting grain bags and twine across the province. The organization shipped 1.87 million pounds of plastic from 13 collection sites last year.
Agriculture minister Lyle Stewart said three times more plastic was collected and shipped last year than in the three previous years of the project combined. The total since 2011 is 2.421 million lb., or 7,345 bags.
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Stewart said in committee debate last week that he had met with environment minister Scott Moe to discuss a permanent program.
“A program is being put together, but we’ll be renewing the pilot for this year,” he said.
The environment ministry is working on regulations for an industry-led permanent recycling program.
Bags and twine are collected at sites in Cudworth, Hirsch, Humboldt, Kelvington, Macoun, Marshall, Milestone, Moose Jaw, Mossbank, Prince Albert, Rush Lake, Saskatoon and Unity.
Agriculture critic Cathy Sproule said in committee that producers are burning bags because they are too far away from the sites, and local landfills won’t take them.
“The urgency seems to be there, particularly with crop years like last year,” she said.
Stewart said he understood that some producers are not as close to the sites as they might like to be.
“And we urge producers not to burn (grain bags), to either store them until we have a permanent program or make the trip to a collection site and have them properly disposed of,” he said.
Travis Quirk, agriculture plastic recycling co-ordinator with Simply Ag Solutions, said the goal is to divert as much as possible from landfills and farmyards.
Simply Ag can be contacted at 866-298-7222.
Contact karen.briere@producer.com
