Almost three years after the collapse of the national soft plastics collection and recycling program REDCycle, the consumer regulator is set to greenlight an industry-led replacement scheme.<\/p>\n
But there are concerns product manufacturers and the major supermarkets will shift the program\u2019s costs onto consumers rather than change their own behaviour of producing and stocking vast quantities of soft plastics that mostly end up in landfill.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the scheme will only recycle a tiny fraction of the soft plastics used in Australia and, at least initially, none of it will be turned back into packaging.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s the problem?<\/p>\n
Australia produces about 538,000 tonnes<\/a> of plastic bags, food wrappers, bubble wrap and other \u201cflexible\u201d plastic waste each year, most of which is difficult and costly to recycle.<\/p>\n Australia is falling far short of national packaging targets set by governments in 2018 for 70% of plastic packaging to be recycled by 2025.<\/p>\n What changes are being made for soft plastic?<\/p>\n A new organisation called Soft Plastics<\/a> Stewardship Australia (SPSA) was created this year to manage the roughly 300,000 tonnes of soft plastics that could be recycled each year, but have been going into landfill.<\/p>\n The SPSA will replace the Soft Plastics Taskforce, comprised of Aldi, Woolworths and Coles, which was set up to deal with REDCycle\u2019s legacy waste.<\/p>\n The SPSA\u2019s founding members are the major supermarkets: Woolworths, Coles and Aldi, and manufacturers Nestl\u00e9, Mars and McCormick Foods, which own many popular brands such as Maggi, Uncle Tobys, MasterFoods, Dolmio and Aeroplane Jelly.<\/p>\n Because it involves competing entities working together, the SPSA has applied to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for approval. The regulator\u2019s final decision is expected in October.<\/p>\n More than 30 other companies have joined the voluntary scheme, including Weet-Bix owner Sanitarium and cosmetics giant L\u2019Or\u00e9al.<\/p>\n But Barry Crozier, one of the SPSA\u2019s co-chief executives, says the members so far represent only about 15% of the soft plastics placed on the market. \u201cWe need a lot more,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n How would it work?<\/p>\n The SPSA, which has been trialling collection at some supermarkets and in kerbside bins in select areas, plans to fund collection, sorting and processing of soft plastics primarily by collecting levies from manufacturers and retailers based on the amount of soft plastics they produce or sell.<\/p>\n The idea is the more companies that sign up, the more equitable the cost will become.<\/p>\n Subject to regulatory authorisation, the initial levy would be $160 per tonne of packaging placed on the market, which would increase to $200 per tonne from 30 June 2026. There would then be annual reviews.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n The SPSA will initially work with local recycling facilities APR, Close The Loop and iQRenew, with the majority of soft plastics sent to the latter. Based in Sydney, iQRenew is licensed to process 6,000 tonnes of the material each year, with the capacity for up to 14,000 tonnes.<\/p>\n While Crozier says this is double what RedCycle collected at its peak, it is still only a drop in the ocean of soft plastics used by Australians. Additionally, Crozier acknowledges that \u2013 at least initially \u2013 none of the collected soft plastics will be turned back into food packaging.<\/p>\n There is also a need to ensure recyclers can sell the products they turn the soft plastics into, such as plastic pellets.<\/p>\n \u201cWe won\u2019t collect more material than [recyclers] have end markets for,\u201d Crozier says. \u201cNor will we collect more than we can afford to fund the collection and processing of \u2013 so we\u2019re going to start slow, very considered, and build it up over time.\u201d<\/p>\n Will products with plastic packaging cost more?<\/p>\n The SPSA\u2019s plan would allow manufacturers to pass the cost of the recycling levies on to consumers by increasing the price of their products. Crozier says this will only result in price increases of up to one cent on most grocery items, or two cents on items in \u201creally large packs\u201d.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n He says similar product stewardship schemes are in place in Europe, Canada and the UK and this is \u201cbest practice\u201d when it comes to dealing with recyclable waste.<\/p>\n He is confident the levy will act as a \u201creal incentive\u201d for manufacturers to choose alternative packaging wherever possible. But environmental groups aren\u2019t convinced \u2013 especially given the proposed scheme is voluntary.<\/p>\n How much will the scheme cost?<\/p>\n Industry experts say soft plastics are a liability. \u201cBy the time you collect the material and send it to a recycler and then get it into an end market, it can be upwards [of] $2,000 to $3,000 a tonne,\u201d Crozier says.<\/p>\n Crozier says the only way to recycle soft plastics into food packaging of an approved standard is through chemical recycling, which very few plants around the world are capable of. APR will be the first in Australia, he says.<\/p>\n APR\u2019s managing director, Darren Thorpe, says the facility will focus on confectionery wrapping, separating the barrier film from the outer plastic so the materials can be reused.<\/p>\n He says APR will initially process 10 tonnes a day, with aspirations for 100 tonnes a day by 2030.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason it\u2019s only 10 tonnes a day is because we need to engage the whole supply chain,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd that was one of the issues with [REDCycle] \u2026 it was just a collection system, and it didn\u2019t have any pull through, so nothing was recycled and everything was aggregated.\u201d<\/p>\n What do the critics say?<\/p>\n Critics point out that the stewardship scheme is voluntary, it will pass costs onto consumers, it will only have capacity to collect and process a small amount of the material and it won\u2019t initially recycle any soft plastics back into packaging.<\/p>\n Roelof Vogel, a circular economy researcher who is undertaking a PhD after a career in the global packaging industry, says the scheme focuses on the \u201csecond third\u201d of the soft plastics lifecycle \u2013 after the material has been created and bought by the consumer \u2013 but it needs to also focus on the final third, which is how recycled soft plastics are reused after they have been collected and processed.<\/p>\n \u201cThe last one third is really the critical part, because we have to find ways to use that stuff,\u201d Vogel says.<\/p>\n Environmental groups have raised concerns with the ACCC that, being industry-led, the scheme is at risk of \u201cgreenwashing\u201d if it is not publicly accountable such as through mandatory reporting requirements.<\/p>\n