Even more farmers are recycling their used plastic containers this year, as Cleanfarm is continuing its recycling program.

Cleanfarm is a stewardship organization that operates across Canada. In the prairies, they work with around 800 collection sites to help out with operations.

The results from their latest news release show that more and more recyclables are being sent into the program.

Director of Stakeholder Relations and Policy Kim Timmer says that this year was their highest ever.

"We're really excited about the recovery rate, and again I think it's just a really tangible example of how farmers are taking care of the packaging they use on the farm. I go back to 2011 when our recovery rate was 69%. It edged up to 71% in 2019, and now we're up to 77%."

They use a variety of programs to help that rate increase every year, including direct work with collection sites.

"We put some recent efforts into increasing our promotions and education. At the same time, I have to give a lot of credit to the collection sites, so that would be ag retailers as well as municipal collection sites. They're the ones that farmers really go to for information about the recovery program and so they're critical to the success of all of our programs."

Timmer says that she's positive the rate of collection will be able to go even higher in future years.

"Anybody, any organization that operates a recovery program is always trying to get as much back as possible and so we're going to continue to educate farmers, we're going to encourage our ag retail partners to make it a priority when they've got that facetime with our customers, and we just know that farmers are looking to us for programs and that we continue to deliver them."