Soft plastics recycling trial

Soft plastics recycling is back

Keen recyclers in our community will be pleased to know soft plastics recycling is returning to local supermarkets as part of a trial that aims to gradually reintroduce this service.

Australians use around 70 billion pieces of soft “scrunchable” plastics each year. This means we have around 538,000 tonnes of soft plastic to manage. Unfortunately a portion of this material can end up in our waterways through littering and dumping. Creating pathways for recycling soft plastics is important to help keep this material out of the litter stream and reduce the volume of waste going to landfill.

You may recall the collapse of REDcycle soft plastic recycling program in 2022. This left behind a large stockpile of material that needed to be processed and as a result recycling collections have been paused whilst this is being managed. In response to significant community interest in this issue a Soft Plastics Taskforce was formed in December 2023 through a collaboration between major Australian supermarkets Aldi, Coles, and Woolworths. The Taskforce is chaired by the federal government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. 

The Taskforce aims to restore soft plastic recycling options, manage stockpiles, and develop a sustainable, national soft plastic recycling system that the community can have confidence in. Solving the issues is not as simple as creating more processing capacity as there also needs to be markets willing to use recycled content and buy the end products.

The efforts of the Taskforce are gradually paying off as the soft plastic stockpiles in NSW are finally clearing and this frees up processing capacity for new collections. Facilities in our state are currently processing soft plastics to create products including composite railway sleepers, bins, crates, tubs and sound walls. Some participating supermarkets are starting collections from the community once again, including Woolworths. However, the industry is taking care to re-introduce collections gradually so stockpiles do not build up. 

Where can you take soft plastics for recycling locally?

You can start collecting your plastic bags, bread bags, chip packets, confectionery wrappers and cereal liners once again, then drop them off at Woolworths at Double Bay.

More information

• Can soft plastics be dropped off at Council collections? No. This current recycling trial is focusing on select supermarket locations to ensure processing capacity is not exceeded. 
• What recycling services does Council have? You'll find all our rubbish and recycling information at this link.