City launches soft plastic recycling

THE City of Greater Bendigo is launching its own soft plastics recycling scheme following the collapse of the company behind the supermarket based REDCycle program.

Up until early-November, the REDCycle system allowed consumers to return a range of soft plastics not suitable for kerbside recycling to major supermarkets.

However, with REDCycle now gone, the City of Greater Bendigo has stepped in to offer soft plastic collection from 1 January at the Strathfieldsaye, Goornong, and Heathcote transfer stations and at the Eaglehawk Recycle Shop near the landfill.

Municipal resource recovery and education manager Brooke Pearce said the City would the soft plastics received would be recycled and reused.

“The City is also committed to buying the recycled product back for use in its regional road projects,” she said.

“Close the Loop will recycle the material at the completion of their new processing line, where it will be turned into an award-winning product called TonerPlas – an asphalt additive used in road building that is manufactured in Melbourne.

“The City is committed to using the product in our roads, in order to create demand for the recycled soft plastics product, as the lack of purchasing of products made from our recycling is a major limiting factor of successful recycling outcomes.

“In Australia alone, more than 300,000 tonnes of soft plastic is dumped into landfills every year.

“Not only is this bad for the environment, it is a massive waste of valuable resources that can be re-used and re-purposed into high performance products.

“We are excited that Close the Loop have partnered with the City to recycle the soft plastics.

“The City will continue to look at further opportunities for more soft plastics disposal points across the municipality in 2023.”

Since 2011, REDcycle had allowed consumers to return soft plastics to their local supermarket for recycling. It was the only program of its kind in Australia.

But the soft plastic program was halted in early November, with the organisation citing several “unforeseen challenges exacerbated by the pandemic” with its downstream recycling partners.

Consumer recycling of soft plastic has also grown exponentially in recent years, with a 350 per cent increase in plastic returned since 2019 a REDcycle spokeswoman said.

Following the collapse, Coles and Woolworths announced they would suspend soft plastics collections from their stores until further notice.

In the weeks after REDcycle’s collapse six warehouses in Melbourne measuring about 3000 tonnes were found full of soft plastics.

– BY ALISTAIR FINLAY AND AAP