Exploring Ag Waste Management on Prince Edward Island
Author: Lyndsay D’Entremont
PEI is a beautiful Island, with breathtaking ocean views and scenic drives through vast farmlands. On certain days of the week while on those drives, you will spot waste, organics, and recycling bags and carts neatly placed at the roadside. This is a visual reminder that PEI has very successful programs to divert as much waste as possible from the one landfill that exists on the Island. Island Waste Management Corporation (IWMC) oversees these waste programs and provides support to residents to achieve exceptional diversion rates. We are proud to partner with IWMC on our agricultural waste collection programs as well.
In addition to residential curbside collection, IWMC also operates 6 Waste Watch Drop-Off Centers (WWDCs), evenly spread out across the Island, to accept a wide variety of materials, including agricultural bale and silage wrap and empty fertilizer bags. During my recent time on PEI, I met with IWMC at a couple of the WWDCs. These centers are unified hubs and one-stop-shops for all your waste needs. There are various areas, bunkers, and containers for all kinds of stewardship programs. Cleanfarms signs identify where to drop these plastics, and, rest assured, properly prepared plastics that are dropped off in these areas are destined for recycling, not the landfill.
Being on PEI, white plastic surrounding bales on farms is a familiar sight, with many scattered across the countryside. These plastics are long, stretchy, and voluminous which does not make them very compatible for burying at a waste site. They are made of plastics that can be recycled and the goal is to keep as much of it out of the garbage as possible. So far in 2023, 67.14 tonnes of bale and silage wrap brought into WWDCs by PEI farmers has been sent directly to recyclers. To do this, bale and silage wrap that is reasonably clean (dried out then shaken off) gets compacted into large bales at the East Prince Waste Management facility. It is truly fascinating to see how much plastic is in these bales. Farmers are encouraged to bring bale and silage wrap to the WWDCs so they can be recycled, as this keeps these bulky plastics out of the landfill. They also are a designated material under the environmental stewardship act which is currently underway.
The fall of 2023 also brought Cleanfarms’ Unwanted pesticides and old livestock/equine medications (UPLM) collections across PEI. I visited 4 of the 7 agricultural retailers that hosted these collections across the Island. These collections are important to ensure safe handling and disposal of outdated and unused materials. It was a busy 2-week event for most retail sites, with some farmers bringing in large quantities and some very old products. We are grateful for the participation and dedication from PEI agricultural retailers who work with Cleanfarms not only for the UPLM initiative, but also for being reliable and convenient drop-off locations for empty pesticide jugs and empty seed and pesticide bags. Empty jug and bag collections were successful again this year, with great participation rates in the Maritimes. We’d like to remind all participants to remove caps and booklets from empty jugs, and ensure containers are triple rinsed— this allows for safe and efficient collections. Another reminder is that empty fertilizer totes go back to IWMC WWDCs in the summertime.
Site visits on PEI are always great opportunities to engage with all our valued stakeholders, from farmers to retailers to agricultural organizations. We thank those invested in helping us achieve environmental goals and working hard to ensure that plastic waste today does not affect farming generations for the future.
