By Benjie Cooper
IG: @nuglifenews
YouTube: Lucid’s Vlog
When a country such as Canada decides that it wants to legalize cannabis on a national scale, packaging becomes an essential consideration in the grand scheme of things. Detailed labeling and packaging rules are standard inclusions during the drafting of regulations.
While zippered plastic bags may have served their purpose in marijuana distribution over past decades of prohibition, they don’t fit the mold in the modern age of legalization, and manufacturers must use other packaging options which can sometimes produce excessive plastic waste.
After the consumer is done with the product, where the packaging ends up is of concern for environmentally-minded individuals and businesses alike.
While the trash can or the recycling bin might be two obvious destinations for discarded packages, a man from Halifax, Nova Scotia has a different idea of what to do with the containers when they’ve outlived their apparent usefulness.
After learning of the excessive waste from marijuana packaging in the city, Kindness 3D founder Jacob Boudreau decided that he wanted to do something to help deal with the problem.
Kindness 3D is a non-profit chapter of e-Nable, a global network of 3D printers that manufacture prosthetic limbs, and Boudreau is looking to use the plastic packaging waste from local dispensaries in his machine.
Boudreau has partnered with local businesses to collect plastic lids from cannabis containers which he can grind up in a modified paper shredder and then use as filament material in his machine to 3D print limbs. He has also started a petition in hopes of getting the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation to collect and donate used packaging to Kindness 3D.
Since Boudreau started Kindness 3D, he has built prosthetic hands for a woman in Brazil and a young girl in Costa Rica. He is currently working on an arm for a four-year-old girl in California.
