{"id":341596,"date":"2025-12-29T20:50:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T20:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/341596\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T20:50:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T20:50:14","slug":"soft-plastics-recycling-is-back-in-australia-how-does-it-work-and-where-does-it-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/341596\/","title":{"rendered":"Soft plastics recycling is back in Australia. How does it work and where does it go?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you cringe at the thought of tossing another bread bag or chip packet into your red bin, brace yourself for some good news.<\/p>\n

Three years after the collapse of the collection scheme REDcycle, soft plastics recycling has resumed through kerbside and supermarket collection schemes.<\/p>\n

So, what is different this time round?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Bags<\/p>\n

Bags of waste on the factory receiving floor. (ABC News: Emma Siossian)<\/p>\n

The recent opening of Australia’s first large-scale soft plastics recycling facility on the New South Wales Mid North Coast could mark the start of a new era.<\/p>\n

The facility at Kundle Kundle, near Taree, takes nearly all the soft plastic waste collected through supermarket and council-managed collection trials.<\/p>\n

Known as the Soft Plastic Engineered Commodity (SPEC), it can process up to 14,000 tonnes of material a year, with plans to scale up to 24,000 tonnes annually, and is run by resource recovery company iQRenew.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Danny Gallagher at the launch of a soft plastics recycling facility in Kundle Kundle. (ABC Mid North Coast: Emma Siossian)<\/p>\n

“This is the piece of infrastructure that was missing,” iQRenew CEO Danial Gallagher said.<\/p>\n

“We have our chip wrappers, our bread bags, our cereal inners, our biscuit wrappers, and they are made from different materials.<\/p>\n

“We have the equipment that can sort a bread bag from a chip packet.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The soft plastic waste moves through a series of stages, and is quickly shredded, sorted and washed. (ABC News: Wiriya Sati)<\/p>\n

Where is the plastic coming from?<\/p>\n

Mr Gallagher said the facility was receiving materials from soft plastic recycling trials in Queensland, NSW, South Australia and Victoria and some return-to-store programs.<\/p>\n

“Woolworths is at 500 stores and that material is coming here, so the volume is starting to flow again,” he said.<\/p>\n

“At the same time, we are working with Soft Plastic Stewardship Australia (SPSA), which is running bag-in-a-bin trials around the country.”<\/p>\n

\"Machinery<\/p>\n

The large-scale household soft plastics recycling facility near Taree can process up to 14,000 tonnes each year. (Supplied: iQRenew)<\/p>\n

The facility is also steadily processing thousands of tonnes of stockpiled waste left after the collapse of REDcycle in 2022.<\/p>\n

“We are on the final tonnes coming in from around Australia from the REDcycle program,” Mr Gallagher said.<\/p>\n

“Currently, as we move through the remaining legacy material, we are receiving two to four truckloads a day at this facility.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Taree facility is full of soft plastics from the collapse of the REDcycle scheme three years ago. (ABC News: Emma Siossian)<\/p>\n

How does it work?<\/p>\n

Soft plastic items are usually accepted if they are “scrunchable” and don’t spring back into their original shape after being crushed.<\/p>\n

Common items include plastic bags, snack wrappers and cling or shrink film.<\/p>\n

\"Shredded<\/p>\n

The plastic is moved along conveyor belts and gradually shredded, sorted and washed, before being extruded into pellets. (ABC News: Wiriya Sati)<\/p>\n

As bags of recycled soft plastics move along fast-moving conveyor belts at the SPEC facility, they are gradually sorted.<\/p>\n

Magnets extract unwanted items, including metals from fruit bags, and optical sorters are programmed to identify and separate materials based on their different polymer [large molecules] types and grades of plastic.<\/p>\n

The material is then washed and dried, and eventually extruded into flakes and pellets, which can then be used in a range of new products like buckets and plastic bags.<\/p>\n

\"Clear<\/p>\n

Clear, white plastic is the highest grade. (Supplied: iQRenew)<\/p>\n

The extruders can process up to 750 kilograms of pellets per hour.<\/p>\n

“It’s demonstrated what’s possible to get another second life of what was going to landfill in our household soft plastics,” Mr Gallagher said.\"Grey<\/p>\n

Recycled soft plastic is transformed into pellets, ready for reuse by manufacturers. (ABC News: Emma Siossian)<\/p>\n

“We have been working with nearly a dozen manufacturers over the past 18 months \u2026 because it’s really important their products also maintain the integrity and do what they are supposed to do.”<\/p>\n

The cycle continues<\/p>\n

Some of the SPEC processed material is sent to Trendpac on the Central Coast, which has become the first company in Australia to use recycled soft plastic in bottles.<\/p>\n

Trendpac CEO Wayne Dicks said the company was trialling the use of processed soft plastics to make bottles for washing liquid.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Recycled soft plastic can be used to make new plastic bottles. (ABC Central Coast: Brianna Moylan)<\/p>\n

He said if the trial was successful, at least 60 million plastic bottles made at the facility each year would be made partially of recycled soft plastic.<\/p>\n

“When we started off with the journey around packaging, sleeves on the bottle were seen to be a sustainable way,” Mr Dicks said.<\/p>\n

“[Then] soft plastic was seen as something that you could not actually term as recyclable.<\/p>\n

“So the partnership with iQrenew was about seeing how we can use soft plastics in a way that we can have them recycled.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Wayne Dicks says using recycled plastic in manufacturing costs up to 30 per cent more. (ABC Central Coast: Brianna Moylan)<\/p>\n

Mr Dicks said the cost of using recycled soft plastic in manufacturing was between 10 and 30 per cent higher than products made completely from virgin plastics.<\/p>\n

“So, from that perspective, we have to look at other ways of being efficient, so that we can soften that impact on the end consumer.”<\/p>\n

Turning plastic back into oil\"A<\/p>\n

Advanced chemical recycling reduces discarded plastics back into oil, which can be used to make new food-grade plastic packaging. (ABC Central Coast: Shauna Foley)<\/p>\n

Other processed material from the SPEC facility is sent to Licella, also on the NSW Central Coast.<\/p>\n

It is trialling a technique known as advanced chemical recycling, which reduces plastic back into its original form \u2014 oil.<\/p>\n

“We use hot pressurised water to convert mixed end-of-life plastic into a recycled oil, and that recycled oil is a direct substitute for fossil oil in making new plastics,” Licella’s general manager of stakeholder engagement, Andrea Polson, said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Andrea Polson says government mandates would help the soft plastics recycling industry. (ABC Central Coast: Shauna Foley)<\/p>\n

“We can do that an infinite number of times \u2026 there is no limit, so it’s a continuously circular economy.<\/p>\n

“All plastics made through advanced recycling can be food grade, and that is really the critical difference between advanced recycling of post-consumer plastics and mechanical recycling.”<\/p>\n

Ms Polson said the company was aiming to build a facility in Melbourne next year, where it would make recycled food-grade packaging on a larger scale.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Hard and soft plastics are both suitable for advanced chemical recycling. (ABC Central Coast: Shauna Foley)<\/p>\n

Boosting demand\u00a0<\/p>\n

iQRenew’s Danny Gallagher said boosting demand for recycled plastic was a key aim.<\/p>\n

“There is a demand from the community to do more with our soft plastics \u2026 at the moment there isn’t too much demand from a purchasing perspective,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Danny Gallagher shows one of the products manufactured with recycled soft plastic pellets. (ABC News: Emma Siossian)<\/p>\n

“We are putting a big call out to businesses and government to procure products made from recycled content and also a mandating of the use of recycled content in products would be very welcome.”Is recycling enough?\"A<\/p>\n

Recycled soft plastic is being used by manufacturers in the production of new products, boosting circularity. (Supplied: iQRewew)<\/p>\n

With Greater Sydney on track to run out of landfill space by 2030, the federal government is committed to doubling circularity by 2035.<\/p>\n

In December 2024, the Albanese government released Australia’s Circular Economy Framework, setting priorities and targets to keep materials in the economy for as long as possible.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Australia’s plastic consumption is estimated to steadily increase in the coming decades. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

But the Sydney-based director of circular economy and waste at the Australia Institute, Nina Gbor, has warned that Australia “can’t recycle ourselves out of the plastic pollution problem”.<\/p>\n

“Australia uses about 70 billion pieces of soft plastics a year, which amounts to about 538,000 tonnes and unfortunately only 6 per cent of that is being recycled,” she said.<\/p>\n

“That means 94 per cent is going to landfill or is being lost to the environment.<\/p>\n

“We should absolutely reduce the amount of virgin plastics that we’re putting into the system.”<\/p>\n

The Australian Plastics Flows and Fates (APFF) project has been run since 2000 and provides an overview of plastics flows across all polymer types and applications.<\/p>\n

\"Piles<\/p>\n

Piles of recycled soft plastic at the SPEC facility near Taree. (Supplied: iQRenew)<\/p>\n

The latest data from 2023-24 shows Australia consumed 4 million tonnes of plastic products and packaging, an increase from 3.9 million tonnes in 2022-23.<\/p>\n

The national plastics recovery rate (both recycling and energy recovery) was 14 per cent.<\/p>\n

Ms Gbor said the use and recycling of soft plastics also posed health risks, and Australia should focus on alternative plant-based materials.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A pile of landfill at the Reedy Creek rubbish tip on the Gold Coast. (ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n

“Plastic has toxic chemicals \u2026 there’s always the question of microplastics pollution when it comes to recycling soft plastics,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The sooner we can find alternative plant-based, non-toxic materials, the better off we will be not only for human health, but also the health of the environment.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you cringe at the thought of tossing another bread bag or chip packet into your red bin,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[53502,7953,1397,32431,132529,62749,90,132528,132530,56,54,55,3084,7538],"class_list":{"0":"post-341596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-central-coast","9":"tag-circular-economy","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-environmental-management","12":"tag-iqrenew","13":"tag-landfill","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-soft-plastics-recycling","16":"tag-spec-taree","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom","19":"tag-unitedkingdom","20":"tag-waste","21":"tag-waste-management"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}