If you consume cannabis, you’ve probably noticed that sometimes you’re left with a lot of scraps. There are the stems, dust and leaves stuck in your grinder or rolling tray, the post-vape plant material from your vaporizer, cannabis pulp left over from making edibles—there’s even that little bit of extract that gets stuck to the inside of your concentrate container.
For many of us who hate to throw away this precious medicine, we wonder about what to do with these remnants. Luckily, cannabis consumers have spent a lot of time figuring out how to recycle these scraps. So, check out these three ways to use your cannabis scraps instead of just throwing them away.
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1. Turn Cannabis Crumbs Into an Edible Base
There are all kinds of cannabis crumbs that may come from:
- Leaves
- Stems
- Kief
- Little bits of bud
Cannabis consumers usually find these crumbs:
- At the bottom of their stash jar
- Stuck in the crevices of their grinder
- Littering their rolling tray
The easiest way to use these cannabis crumbs is to turn them into something to make cannabis edibles. Some options include:
To get started, gather all of your cannabis crumbs together. You can infuse something with just the scraps or add them in with shake or bud if you don’t have enough scraps for a full batch.
Once you’ve made your edible base, you can use your butter, oil or milk in whatever recipes you like. With this method, you never need to toss your cannabis crumbs out again.
RELATED: CONSUMING CANNABIS EDIBLES TO IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH
2. Use Cannabis Pulp in High-Fiber Dishes
So, we know how to use up all of our cannabis crumbs, but what about after we’ve made our edible base? The process of making cannabis-infused oils, butter or milk usually leaves behind some cannabis pulp (the scraps that you strain out of your butter or oil, for example, once it’s infused).
While most of the cannabis compounds wind up in your oil, butter or milk, not all of them do. There’s still a ton of therapeutic ingredients in this pulp that you don’t have to waste.
So, how can we recycle this cannabis pulp? Many people choose to use them in high-fiber dishes to add even more fibrous material to the meal.
Bulking up your food with fiber can help:
- Boost colon health
- Lower cholesterol
- Regulate blood sugars
To reuse your cannabis this way, you should first put it through a blender to make sure it has a smooth and even consistency—no one wants to bite down on a stem while they’re eating.
Then you can add this smooth pulp to dishes like
- The ultimate cannabis breakfast smoothie
- Cannabis-infused broccoli-cheddar soup
- [Vegan cannabis-infused pumpkin seed pesto](https://www.hellomd.com/articles/diy-recipe-vegan-cannabis-infused-pumpkin-seed-pesto/
You can even use this pulp as a garnish on top of your infused dishes for an elegant presentation.
3. Turn Leftover Extract Into Cannabis Topicals
If you prefer marijuana extracts to flower and edibles, you may find you have a different kind of leftover—the bits of cannabis extract that get stuck to the sides of the container they come in. Sometimes this means concentrate stuck to a tiny glass or plastic jar, parchment paper or a prefilled tank. It can feel like no matter how hard you try, you just can’t seem to get to that last bit of extract.
But don’t worry, there are ways to salvage this leftover concentrate. My favorite way to use it is to turn the extract into a cannabis topical.
To do this, you’ll need to find a carrier oil that works well with your skin. I like to use argan oil, because it doesn’t clog my pores. But you can use just about any oil that stays in liquid form at room temperature.
When you’ve picked out a good oil, pour a little bit into the extract container. If you’re using a tank, you may need to pop part of the tank off to access the concentrate. Make sure the oil is touching all of the extract in the container, and then close it up. If you’re working with parchment paper, you can put the entire thing into another container.
Once you’ve got your container sealed, let it sit in a cool dark place for three to five days. If you’d like, you can periodically shake the container to mix it. After a few days, check on your container. You should have an infused oil that can rub directly onto your skin for localized pain relief.
Photo credit: Creative Family/Shutterstock.com
If you’re new to cannabis and want to learn more, take a look at our Cannabis 101 index of articles. And if you have questions about cannabis, ask them and our community will answer.
