Saskatchewan’s Grain Bag Recycling Program Popular With Farmers

Aug 20, 2019

Driving down the road you may have seen the long white bags in the field; those grain bags are becoming more popular with farmers.

Stats show the number of grain bags used every year in the Province is about 15,000 to 20,000 bags per year; depending on the crop.

Barry Friesen is General Manager of Cleanfarms and says Saskatchewan’s Grain Bag Recycling Program for this year is already at about 1580 tonnes up from 1265 tonnes last year.

“More and more farmers are adopting using grain bags to store some of their product. This year we’ve collected over half of what our estimates are for generating in the Province every year and we haven’t even gone through the full year yet.”

Friesen says farmers roll up the grain bags and take them to designated sites for recycling.

“We’re very, very pleased with the results we’re getting. There’s about 34 locations across the Province of Saskatchewan where farmers can take their Grain bags back and there we collect those grain bags and send them to recycling facilities. The bags are shredded, washed, and re-pelletized and made into new plastic products mainly other types of plastic bags, garbage bags, etc.”

Friesen says they are also operating pilot “Grain Bag Recycling” projects in Manitoba and Alberta, mainly at municipal locations, information is available on the Cleanfarms website.

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.