Winter Slowdown, Community Strength: Recycling That Works in a Tough Market

Winter Slowdown, Community Strength

Winter is always the slow season in cannabis, and December was no exception. Even so, our recycling program held steady. A reminder that progress doesn’t stop just because the market slows down.

In December, 2,941 pounds of material moved through our system. Returns dipped by just under 200 pounds compared to prior months, which is typical for this time of year. What stood out, however, was the consistency of our plastic intake. Polypropylene remained strong at 1,925 pounds, showing that our community continues to participate even during the slowest stretch of the calendar.

December by the Numbers

• Plastic: 1,925 lbs (66%)

• Glass: 203 lbs (7%)

• Metal: 93 lbs (3%)

• Paper: 142 lbs (5%)

• Trash: 578 lbs (19%)

Overall, 81% of everything returned in December was recycled, keeping us aligned with our program goals and reinforcing that this system works when people use it.

A Big Picture Look at Our 2025 Impact

Zooming out, 2025 was a meaningful year for our recycling program.

Over the course of the year, the P3 community recycled 24,688 pounds of polypropylene, while we sold 257,115 pounds of polypropylene packaging. That means nearly 10% of the packaging we sold came back through our recycling system.

When compared to national performance, that number matters.

Across the U.S., plastic recycling rates remain extremely low. Estimates show that only 5–9% of plastic waste is recycled at all. For polypropylene specifically, one of the most widely used plastics in packaging, the national recycling rate is around 8% or less.

In other words, our community is outperforming national averages for polypropylene recycling. Without massive budgets, taxpayer funding, or centralized infrastructure. Instead, it’s happening through local participation, education, and systems designed specifically for the materials we see every day.

Innovation That’s Changing What’s Possible

One of the biggest challenges in plastic recycling is material identification. Without a clear resin identification code (the small number inside the recycling arrows), recyclers are often forced to landfill material simply because its composition can’t be verified.

Unlike large-scale recycling operations, our program is self-funded. We don’t have millions of dollars to invest in industrial sorting systems. Last year, that reality pushed us to look for a different solution.

We found it in a small UK-based startup building material identification technology designed for recyclers like us. With this tool, we can now identify virtually any plastic brought into our system. That capability led to a major breakthrough.

For years, we had been forced to discard joint tubes from major brands because their labels wouldn’t come off. Once we began testing those labels, we discovered something surprising: many of them are polypropylene.

This changes everything.

It means that labels, one of the biggest contamination issues in plastic recycling, don’t have to be a problem. In fact, every label used in the legal cannabis industry could be made from polypropylene, matching the packaging it’s applied to.

We’re now testing new label options that function identically to today’s paper labels, but are fully recyclable instead of landfill-bound. Thousands of pounds of packaging that were once unrecyclable are now easier to recycle than ever.

Why This Matters for the Industry

Recycling isn’t just about diversion; it’s about purity. Cleaner material streams create better end products, stronger markets, and real second lives for plastic.

At the same time, the cannabis industry itself has matured. Consumption has largely leveled off, prices continue to tighten, and growth is no longer guaranteed. The path forward isn’t volume. It’s quality, efficiency, and systems that actually work.

Slow months don’t stop progress. They reveal resilience.

Our community continues to show what’s possible when packaging, recycling, and participation are designed to work together. Pound by pound, those efforts add up, and they’re helping reshape what sustainability can look like in cannabis and beyond.