New soft plastics solutions after popular recycling scheme collapsed

Many Australians diligently went into Coles and Woolworths to do one thing to help. The opposite was happening behind the scenes.

Biscuit wrappers, chip packets, garbage bags, post sacks. There’s soft plastic everywhere and, for those who collected it and took it to their local supermarket for REDcycle recycling, the program’s collapse in November 2022 was devastating.

Melbourne-based REDcycle owes $5 million to creditors and it’s been revealed that tonnes of soft plastics were stored in warehouses dotted around the country and not recycled. Coles and Woolworths are currently paying storage fees for these while trying to find a solution.

Coles and Woolworths have been left with a massive soft plastics problem since the collapse of REDcycle. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Swift

But an unexpected outcome is gradually taking place as a result.

Local councils, inundated with requests from their community, have started to take ownership of the issue. Now soft plastic recycling schemes are starting to crop up around the country.

“After REDcycle, there was an immediate outcry and desire for soft plastic recycling,” Dylan Parker, Mayor of Randwick in NSW said. “We’d been looking at it for sometime but [the collapse] put a rocket up our staff.”

The council’s response in February 2023 was to create its own soft plastics drop-off point for Randwick residents.

Randwick Council is collecting soft plastics. Picture: Mark Bond

The material is taken by waste processor, Plasmar and turned into things like fence posts, benches and car park stoppers that Randwick Council can then purchase back.

“It’s the full circle of life,” Mr Parker said. “We supply the soft plastics and then buy them back [in their new form]. One of the reasons REDcycle failed was because there was insufficient demand for the end product. But our soft plastics start and finish with us.”

In its first few months of life the program is already proving popular, with Randwick residents dropping off 1.9 tonnes of plastic.

“Realistically we need a much larger response from Federal and State Government working with manufacturers to take soft plastic out, but we’re looking at this as an example to other councils that it can be done,” Mr Parker said.

Tamworth is another council leading the way. In December 2022 it joined a program run by kerbside recycler, CurbCycle, allowing its residents to put soft plastics in their yellow bin.

Curby enables residents of certain areas to put soft plastics in their yellow bins. Picture: Supplied.

The Curby scheme has been running since 2020 in the Central Coast and Newcastle City council areas, and operates a tag system so the soft plastic can be tracked from kerb to recycling facility.

“Users sign up to be involved and are sent Curby tags with a unique QR code to scan,” Ewan Wilcox, project manager at CurbCycle said. “They collect their soft plastic in their own plastic bag – a shopping bag works well – attach and scan the tag and then it goes in the yellow bin. To date we have 25,000 participants and we’re receiving 24,000 bags a month.”

Processing availability is the major limitation but Mr Wilcox said the company is working with partners to build this out in both NSW and Victoria.

“Our residents were initially worried about whether their soft plastics would get recycled and whether they would end up stockpiled in warehouses like we’ve seen with REDcycle, but we’ve been able to visit the facility and we’re confident that’s not going to happen,” said Angela Dodson, waste sustainability officer at Tamworth regional council.

“It’s why we’ve kept it small,” Mr Wilcox said. “A lot of other councils have expressed interest and we’re hoping there will be more processing in place by the end of this year so expansion is possible.”

As local councils ramp up their response, the newly formed Soft Plastics Taskforce, made up of Woolworths, Coles and Aldi, is also working on solutions.

REDcycle had been stockpiling soft plastics instead of recycling them.

In February, REDcycle accepted thr group’s offer to take control of its stockpiled soft plastic and provide safe storage of the material while recycling solutions were explored.

Once this has been cleared, they aim to launch an in-store collection trial in selected stores by the end of 2023.

“The new program would then be gradually rolled out nationwide next year,” a release from the taskforce said.

The fact remains though that the processing capability for the amount of soft plastic we use does not yet exist.

“At present, it would not be possible to recycle the volume of household soft plastics collected in a supermarket program using domestic infrastructure,” the taskforce said. “Accordingly, the taskforce has plotted out the projected gradual increase in Australian soft plastic recycling capacity over the next year, as new operators launch, and existing processors expand.”

“Processing is the biggest bottleneck,” Mr Wilcox said. “We need something now and until then the focus should be on soft plastic avoidance.”

Emma Levett is a freelance writer