After the collapse of soft plastic recycling program REDcycle nearly three years ago, it’s been almost impossible for individuals to recycle soft plastics in Australia.
But supermarkets and councils are slowly introducing new soft plastic collection trials, as local recycling capacity has gently ramped up.
So how are the trials going, and is it possible to keep up our use of soft plastics without creating so much waste?
Where can soft plastics be collected in Australia?
Some 500 Woolworths, Coles and Aldi stores in NSW and Victoria are now accepting soft plastics from local shoppers.
This is an initiative of the Soft Plastics Taskforce, which was established by the three supermarket chains after REDCycle’s collapse.
A spokesperson for the supermarket members of the taskforce said that the trial is due to expand to parts of south-east Queensland, the ACT, and Adelaide in the next 12 months.
But other parts of the country aren’t included in the plans yet. The spokesperson said soft plastic collection wasn’t yet feasible in Tasmania, the NT or WA.
“There is simply not enough soft plastic recycling capacity in Australia to support full, nationwide collections, so it’s important not to exceed limited local recycling capacity.”
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recently proposed to authorise a product stewardship scheme to manage soft plastics recycling.
This voluntary scheme, which will be run by Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia (SPSA), will collect levies from supermarkets and other plastic producers.
REDcycle left behind an 11,000-tonne stockpile of soft plastics, which the taskforce has now reduced down to 3,500 tonnes. (ABC News: Margaret Paul)
Barry Cosier, co-CEO of SPSA, said the levies would go towards funding parts of the plastic recycling chain which needed more attention.
“We’re almost like a dating service for the supply chain,” Mr Cosier said.
Separate to the taskforce, SPSA is also running kerbside recycling trials in nine councils in SA, Victoria and NSW.
Residents in these councils can register to join pilot programs where soft plastics can be bunched together and put in their recycling bins.
Some other councils have set up their own schemes independently.
You can check your local council’s website, or call them, to find out what’s possible in your area.Â
But if none of these trials are local to you, for now, the only way to dispose of your soft plastics is via your general waste bin.
“Where I live, I haven’t got [soft plastics recycling] yet, and I would love it,” Mr Cosier said.
What’s happening to the soft plastics collected?
Once collected, the soft plastics are shipped to local third-party sorters and recyclers.
For now, they’re mostly being converted mechanically, via shredding, grinding or melting, into lower-grade plastics for use in things like road asphalt and park benches.
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It’s possible to convert soft plastics back into new soft plastics. This relies on chemical reactions to break the plastic molecules into their component parts.
But this method, known as chemical recycling, is complicated to do.
“It’s a really long supply chain, but that’s the only way you can get packaging back into food grade packaging,” Mr Cosier said.
He said the lack of “end markets” for recycled content is one factor limiting soft plastic recycling at the moment: there’s low demand for materials made from recycled plastics.
It’s cheaper to make new plastics from petrochemicals than it is to use recycled material, particularly for food and medicine packaging.
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Mr Cosier said government-enforced standards for including recycled material in products would help to increase demand for recycled materials.
Anya Phelan, a researcher in innovation at Griffith University, said that mandatory recycled content standards were crucial for ramping up plastic recycling.
“If producers and manufacturers can just use any type of packaging they want, then we’re back to square one,” she said.
Widening soft plastic regulation
Dr Phelan believed the new levy scheme spearheaded by SPSA was promising, but should be mandated.
Voluntary schemes, she said, ran the risk of free-riders — businesses reaping the benefits of improved recycling without having to pay levies — and patchy coverage across Australia.
“At the moment, everything is very metro-centric and it’s not fair to other regions that don’t have recycling,” Dr Phelan said.
Since REDcycle’s collapse, large-scale soft plastic recycling has been on hold in Australia. (ABC)
Mr Cosier said companies which had already signed on to the scheme accounted for about 15 per cent of the soft plastics in the Australian market.
While he wanted other companies to join the scheme, he said that legislation to regulate it could take a long time.
“Better we get started, but ultimately it would certainly accelerate action if the scheme was mandated,” Mr Cosier said.
Simran Talwar, a researcher in the circular economy at University of Technology Sydney, said that the scheme was an important step forward, and mandating it would help to deal with plastics at the end of their life.
But this isn’t the only problem, according to Dr Talwar.
“While soft plastic is highly recyclable, that doesn’t necessarily justify its use when there’s no form or functionality that it delivers,” she said.
“There is no regulation around where and when these materials need to be used. That is a big part of the problem.”
It is possible to recycle all of our soft plastics?
According to the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, some 546,000 tonnes of flexible plastic entered the Australian market in 2022–23.
Just 6 per cent of that plastic was recycled.
“There’s such a huge gap to make up,” Dr Phelan said.
She is sceptical Australia has the recycling capacity to deal with all of our soft plastics.
“Achieving 100 per cent circularity is unrealistic in the near term.”
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But it is still possible to improve on current rates. A better recycling system, according to Dr Phelan, would have Australia-wide coverage, more transparency for consumers, and ways to penalise plastic producers that don’t meet recycling targets.
Dr Talwar said that the best regulations take in a material’s whole life cycle, pushing for better design and minimised production, as well as dealing with waste.
“When we think about circularity, it is often what can we do with the material that’s already there, and what are the best end uses for that material.”
Dr Talwar said there wasn’t a “one-stop solution” to the soft plastic problem.
“We definitely do need to address the issue around production, but at the moment, I think the immediate opportunity is around how we use those materials and how best we can recover them at the end of life.”