Once upon a time, before marijuana became legal (or partly legal) in most of the U.S., the only plastic involved with a pot transaction might have been a small baggie and a disposable lighter. (Or, ahem, so I am told.)
But scan the shelves of a cannabis dispensary in 2025 and you’ll find many of the chewable “gummies,” syrups and smokeable products often come in plastic. Lots of it. Cannabis might come in plastic jars or bottles with child-resistant lids, layers of redundant plastic wrap or vape pens made with plastic parts designed for a single use before disposal.
Legalization of cannabis has had a curious side effect as the industry’s rapid growth brought a proliferation of packaging. In short, pot has a plastics problem.
“The cannabis industry, I would say, is probably one of the more problematic,” Mike Forenza, managing partner at AE Global, told Newsweek. Forenza’s Florida-based packaging company has become a go-to provider for the cannabis industry.
Forenza said that even though many client company leaders he works with are sustainability-minded, they are challenged by regulations and a complex market landscape.
“You end up having a lot of a lot of waste in the industry,” Forenza said.
The dispensary support platform Flowhub told Newsweek that it estimated that the U.S. cannabis industry produces 7,000 tons of plastic waste a year. The online plastic and paper packaging shopping site Marijuanapackaging.com said that a gram of cannabis product can require “up to 70 times its weight in packaging materials,” and the company estimated that the packaging results in 10,000 tons of plastic waste annually across North America.
Scale and context matter here. The amount of waste from marijuana is minuscule compared to the plastics generated by many more common products. A study published this month in the journal Scientific Reports estimated that just three beverage companies—Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestlé—produced about 8 million metric tons of plastic in a year, and as much as half of that ended up as plastic pollution on land or in rivers and oceans.
Still, with the world facing a plastic-waste crisis in which marine scientists warn that a garbage truck’s worth of plastic enters the oceans each minute, every new source of plastic waste matters, especially one that is growing as fast as the cannabis business.
Forenza said part of the problem stems from the fact that the industry grew like, well, a weed, and that left state lawmakers struggling to keep up.
“When you think about how quickly the industry kind of just popped up out of nowhere, I think the state regulators came up with some blanket, child-resistant requirements for the industry as a whole,” he said.
CannaCon, an event producer for the cannabis industry, keeps a running list of state regulations on its website reflecting the hodgepodge of rules on marijuana packaging.
At least 25 states require child-resistant packaging, according to the CannaCon list. About 15 states require opaque packaging for cannabis and nine states prohibit cannabis packaging that resembles that of commercial foods. Missouri bans cannabis packaging shaped to resemble people or animals, including “mythical creatures such as a unicorn or dragon.”
“It creates a pretty challenging use case to move away from plastic when you have all of those factors put together,” Forenza said.
Kyle Sherman, founder and CEO of Flowhub, agreed, telling Newsweek via email that “rigid compliance packaging requirements” contribute to the problem. He said packaging from “pre-rolls,” flower jars, vape cartridges and edibles make up the bulk of the waste.
“The cannabis industry is still young, and with that comes growing pains—especially around sustainability,” Sherman said. “As the industry matures, there’s a clear opportunity to innovate packaging that protects both people and the planet.”
Several startup businesses cater to cannabis companies willing to pay extra for some more sustainable packaging made from reclaimed and recycled materials. But the requirements for tamper-proof and child-resistant packages limit those options, according to Aaron Smith, co-founder and CEO of the National Cannabis Industry Association.
“Companies frequently find that compliant alternatives to plastic are either simply unavailable or cost-prohibitive at scale,” Smith said in an email. As the industry grows and more states legalize cannabis sales, Smith is hoping for more public-private cooperation on packaging rules—a joint effort, if you will.
“We’re calling on policymakers to work with industry leaders to modernize packaging requirements in a way that protects consumers without creating unnecessary environmental harm,” Smith said.
In the meantime, Forenza said AE Global has partnered with groups tackling the plastic waste crisis, supporting better waste collection and recycling in parts of the world most seriously affected by plastic pollution.
“We’ve really made our sustainability initiative about helping fund waste management infrastructure,” Forenza said. His company has a partnership with RePurpose Global, a platform that allows businesses to offset their plastic footprint by funding recycling of the same amount of plastic waste they produce.
RePurpose Global is also part of the Innovation Alliance for a Global Plastics Treaty, a collection of startups, technology companies, philanthropists and investors who are advocating for a strong Global Plastic Treaty.
In August, the United Nations will bring negotiators from around the world to Geneva for another round of talks on a treaty to address the plastic waste crisis. On Thursday you can join Newsweek for a live, remote event to hear a panel of experts explain the major issues in the treaty discussion and share the latest on efforts to rein in plastic pollution.
Register here and join us Thursday July 24 2 p.m. ET via your smartphone or laptop for “Turning the Tide on Plastic Waste.”
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