Soft plastic recycling scheme available at Coles, Woolies collapses
An Aussie company claiming to recycle soft plastics has instead been shipping materials dropped off by customers to sit in a warehouse for months.
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Aussies who have been taking the time to drop their soft plastics off at Coles and Woolworths recycling points have been left bitterly disappointed after it was revealed the rubbish was not being recycled at all.
REDcycle was founded in 2011, with the Melbourne-based company encouraging Australians to drop off their unwanted soft plastics to be recycled, instead of letting them go into landfill.
The company has partnered with Coles and Woolworths, with drop-off points at nearly 2000 supermarkets across the country.
REDcycle claims to have collected more than 3600 tonnes of plastic, including items such as shopping bags, chip packets, cling film, bread bags and bubble wrap.
The company says these things can be recycled into furniture, playground equipment garden edging, wheel stops, and materials for walkways in parks, roads and bollards.
But for months now, the plastics that have been diligently collected and dropped off by customers haven’t been being recycled at all.
Woolworths said it was blindsided by the “disappointing” news, while Coles confirmed it would follow Woolies’ lead and suspend its REDcycle soft plastic collections.
The Sydney Morning Herald revealed, up until now, the company had failed to publicly announce the recycling component of the program had been suspended, meaning piles of plastics had been building up in warehouses for months.
The company has now announced it will be temporarily pausing its soft plastics collection program from today, November 9, with no confirmation of when it will resume.
REDcycle said consumer recycling of soft plastic has grown “exponentially” in recent years, with a 350 per cent increase since 2019.
“However, due to several unforeseen challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, REDcycle’s recycling partners have temporarily stopped accepting and processing soft plastics,” the company said.
“This combination has put untenable pressure on the REDcycle business model.”
In June 2022, Close the Loop, the largest volume offtake partner of REDcycle, experienced a “significant” fire that forced their facility to close for reconstruction.
Another offtake partner, Replas, suffered “significant pandemic-related downturns in market demand”, along with challenges like the delayed commercialisation of new products.
As a result of these issues, REDcycle said it took the “unwanted but necessary decision” to hold the material that had been donated in storage at “great personal expense” to the company.
It is not clear exactly how much soft plastics are currently being stored by the company.
Collections at Coles and Woolies to cease
A Coles spokesperson told news.com.au that it had been informed that REDcycle soft plastic collections would be paused until further noticed due to “industry-wide challenges”.
“This means we will be unable to accept soft plastic recycling returns in Coles stores and through Coles Online at this time. Sustainability is as important to Coles as it is to our customers and partners,” the spokesperson said.
“We are committed to our Together to zero waste ambition and are working with government, industry and sustainability partners to find a long-term solution for soft plastics recycling in Australia.”
A Woolworths spokesperson told news.com.au that the supermarket giant was “only recently informed” about the number of challenges facing the REDcycle network.
“Redcycle has advised that it will no longer be able to collect the soft plastic returned by customers from our stores, effective immediately,” the spokesperson said.
“Regrettably, this means customers will not be able to recycle their household soft plastic at our stores until collections are able to recommence or an alternative solution can be found.
“We are disappointed by this situation. We sincerely apologise to our customers and we’re working to return access to soft plastic recycling as soon as possible.”
Woolworths said it was working through a range of options with the Australian Food and Grocery Council, the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, and the recycling industry “to support the future of soft plastic recycling”.
Signage will be provided across Woolworths stores to inform customers of the suspension of the program.
Aussies upset at recycling revelation
Aussies who have been diligently collecting and dropping off their soft plastics have been left bitterly disappointed by the news.
Australian Labor Party Vice President, Mich-Elle Myers, branded the situation “ridiculous”.
“It’s extraordinary how much soft plastic comes from just my house. I take it to
@woolworths to be recycled. We must first reduce the packaging used everywhere and we must ensure what is out there gets,” she wrote on Twitter.
The Chaser’s Craig Reucassel said the news was a “real shame”.
“The balance between the enormous amounts of soft plastic waste and the demand for products it could make was a fragile one. How do we solve our plastic problem?” he said.
“Oh damn. REDcycle was a good way to help minimise my landfill rubbish. Where can soft plastics go now?” another person wrote on Twitter.
Other people blasted the situation as “infuriating” and “personally painful”, with many pointing out it was near impossible to shop without accumulating soft plastics.
“Absolutely ridiculous! What an absolute huge step backwards!” one person wrote on social media.
Another said the situation was “extremely disappointing”, suggested the government needed to “step up and sort this out”.
REDcycle has ensured Australians that use the program that the soft plastics that have accumulated will not end up in landfill and will be processed in the future.
“The REDcycle team has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to find other processing solutions and end markets,” the company said.
“Potential new opportunities are being presented every day, however they will take time to operationalise.”
Until that time, REDcycle drop-off points will remain closed, with customers told to put their soft plastics in their home rubbish bin in the meantime.
Customers should not put the soft plastics in their home kerb-side recycling bin as they are not recyclable through this system.
Originally published as Soft plastic recycling scheme available at Coles, Woolies collapses
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