Saskatchewan woman earns award for work in grain bag recycling

May 30, 2022

Saskatchewan resident Tammy Shields was honoured by the Saskatchewan Waste Reduction Council (SWRC) back in April for her role in grain bag recycling in Saskatchewan.

Shield received the prestigious Waste Minimization Award at the SWRC’s annual Waste ReForum conference.

“Waste management and waste diversion is very much a passion of mine and recycling. So, to receive such a prestigious award from the SWRC is a great honour and it really bodes well with myself and my peers that I feel they truly support the work that I'm doing in Saskatchewan,” said Shields

She first began looking into grain bag recycling when she was working at home with the Moose Jaw River Watershed Stewards, where the board heard a lot about issues with grain bags and baler twine with farmers needing to manage 300–400 pound pieces of plastic.

Shields decided to look into it further to see if there was an end-market or a better way for farmers to manage bags.

With some help from both government and non-government organizations, Shields' first pilot collection site opened in the RM of Caledonia in March of 2010.

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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.