Best, worst recycling suburbs revealed
EXCLUSIVE: Coles has revealed the best and worst suburbs across Australia, where customers are regularly recycling soft plastics.
Canberra Star
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Coles has revealed for the first time the best and worst suburbs across Australia where customers are regularly recycling soft plastics at their local stores.
Data from Coles’ new Sustainability Report obtained by News Corp has found overall, customers recycled 905 tonnes or 226 million pieces of soft plastics — an increase of 32 per cent in the last financial year.
The supermarket giant became the first major retailer to roll out REDcycle bins in all stores last year, allowing shoppers to return plastic products they cannot put in their kerbside recycling bin at home.
The REDcycle program accepts soft plastics including biscuit packets, lolly bags, frozen food bags, bread, rice and pasta bags.
These soft plastics can be recycled into furniture, playground equipment garden edging, wheel stops, and materials for walkways in parks, roads and bollards.
Nationally, the top 10 stores whose shoppers recycle the most include St Agnes and Blackwood in South Australia, followed by Kingston in Tasmania, Jamison in the ACT, Yarraville in Victoria, Hornsby in NSW, Southland in Victoria, Chatswood Chase in NSW, Burnside and Westlakes in South Australia.
In the ACT, the top performing stores where locals recycle are Jamison, Woden Plaza, Belconnen, Wanniassa and Queanbeyan.
But the worst performing stores where locals do not recycle as much are Amaroo, Chisholm, Tuggeranong, Canberra’s Civic and Gungahlin.
Planet Ark Deputy CEO Rebecca Gilling told News Corp the latest results of Coles’ REDcycle program showed the message was getting through to Australians that they must keep soft plastics out of their recycling bins at home.
“The trouble with soft plastics is that they get caught up in the machinery,” she said.
“If you just put them in loose, they will get pulled off the conveyor belt and put straight in the bin.
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“People also tend to put their rubbish in a plastic bag and put that in a yellow bin at home.
“There are people who pull these off the line — recycling this way amounts to nothing.”
Ms Gilling said very few councils accept soft plastics, and urged more shoppers to take them back to the supermarket to add to the REDcycle bins.
“We’ve got to keep this circular economy going and keep these plastics moving through as many times as possible,” she said.
RED Group Director of Development Elizabeth Kasell is pleased more consumers have supported soft-plastic recycling.
“The beauty of this program is its simplicity,” she said.
“We’re not asking people to change their routines — it’s just a matter of remembering to take their plastic packaging with them next time they visit their local Coles supermarket.”