Ontario farmers returned over 114 000 kilograms of pesticides for safe disposal last year. Now CleanFARMS is taking on a new challenge.

For those who don’t recognize the CleanFARMS name, this stewardship association organized the free drop-off program last October which collected farmers’ unwanted agricultural pesticides at 31 ag-retails in Ontario. While this program only comes to this province every three years, they do recycle empty containers every year. In 2014, at 12 exact locations, they will also be accepting empty seed and pesticide bags as part of a new pilot program in southwestern Ontario and Quebec.

The bag collection program will run from May to September, accepting any empty multi-walled paper, plastic and aluminum pesticide bags or multi-walled paper and polywoven plastic seed bags. Farmers are asked to follow specific preparation steps before returning bags to participating locations.