Disclaimers: This article contains affiliate links, I am compensated if you make a purchase through these links, click here for our full disclosure.
Australia’s largest soft plastics recycler and collector REDcycle has paused its operations in 9 November 2022. We talked a lot about REDcycle, the name is literally synonyms with soft plastics – see a soft plastic bag, bin it at the REDcycle drop-off point.
According to REDcycle1, 2 of its main offtake partners, namely Close The Loop and Replas, are unable to accept and process these soft plastics due to a fire-related disruption at its processing plant and pandemic-related economic downturns respectively. This literally led to REDcycle having to stockpile soft plastics as supplies greatly outweighed demands. Whilst the already stockpiled soft plastics will remain in the REDcycle storage until new recycling partners are able to process them, REDcycle has paused its ongoing soft plastics collection for now.
As we have discussed in the post on Recycling Myth Busting, recycling in itself is part of the bigger picture that is to create a Circular Economy where consumers are able to correctly recycle their used plastics into recycling streams and consumers continue to purchase products made from recycled plastics. Only then will the demand drives and incentivises the need for more plastics recovery and processing. However, this is currently lacking2.
What’s the situation in Western Australia?
Between 2018 – 2019, the rate of plastics recovery in WA was 5.6% while the national rate sat on 11.5%2. In an online questionnaire conducted in WA2, 26% of respondents noted that they would place soft plastics into their recycling bins, 50% of the participants never take their soft plastics to a dedicated drop-off point while 48% collectively return these plastics to the store drop-off with frequencies ranging from rarely (20%) to very often (12%).
What can we do for now?
1. REDcycle1 suggests Reducing your soft plastics usage and consider storing them at home for the time being especially if you live regionally and do not have easy access to a Terracycle public drop-off point.
2. Curby if you have it – if you live in the 4 selected councils in NSW, you could be eligible to use Curby and drop off your soft plastics in your usual yellow-lidded curbside bins with Curby bags and/or tags.
3. Write to Woolworths and Coles to ask them to engage Terracycle to become a public drop-off point, or discuss with your workplace if they could become a public drop-off point – more details on Terracycle’s website. (FYI I did send both Woolies and Coles a message on facebook but received NO REPLY)
4. Use Terracycle’s directory to find a soft plastic public drop-off point in your neighbourhood! (Top tip: you can try searching for ‘Food care packaging’ that sounds like it would be appropriate for food-related soft plastics and you might have to enlarge your search perimeters by clicking on the little minus sign at the bottom of the map)
Do you have another suggestion on what we can do to our soft plastics waste? Tell us in the comments below.
1 https://redcycle.net.au/faqs/
Sassy Organics
Shop Sustainable Skincare & Home Essentials
EcoLivingDaily 