A soft plastics recycling bin has returned to Woolworths Lane Cove. This marks the expansion of a trial around the country run by the Soft Plastics Taskforce (SPT), which is made up of the three major supermarkets: Woolworths Group, Coles Group and ALDI.
The previous operator REDCycle collapsed in November 2022. Leaving tonnes and tonnes of soft plastic in numerous warehouses.
This is only a trial as the joint recycling strategy from the Ministry of the Environment and Water and the Ministry of Climate Change and the Environment and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is still developing a plan to recycle legacy soft plastics that have been stockpiled following the collapse of REDcycle.
REDcycle was an industry-led return-to-store soft plastics collection and recycling program developed and operated by RG Programs and Services Pty Ltd. The major supermarkets partnered with REDcycle to provide collection points for consumers to return their soft plastics instore for collection by REDcycle for processing into durable recycled plastic products.
On 8 November 2022, REDcycle announced the indefinite suspension of its soft plastics collection program as its recycling partners had temporarily stopped accepting and processing soft plastics. Following REDcycle’s announcement, Coles and Woolworths each announced the suspension of soft plastic collections from their stores until further notice.
What is the Soft Plastics Taskforce?
Coles, Woolworths and ALDI sought authorisation from the ACCC in November 2022 to enable them to collaborate to consider and develop solutions for the recycling of soft plastics.
The ACCC’s interim authorisation on 25 November 2022, led to the establishment of the Soft Plastics Taskforce, chaired by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
On 26 February 2023, the supermarkets assumed responsibility for the REDcycle stockpiles. It was later reported that approximately 11,000 tonnes of soft plastics had been stockpiled in over 44 locations. REDcycle’s parent company was declared insolvent on 27 February 2023 with a liquidator appointed.
The ACCC granted authorisation on 30 June 2023 for a period of 12 months to allow the supermarkets to collaborate with the Soft Plastics Task force to process the soft plastic stockpiles.
On 18 July 2024, the ACCC granted interim authorisation for substantially the same conduct authorised on 30 June 2023 while the ACCC considered the merits of the substantive application.
As part of the authorisation the Participants must submit a quarterly progress report to the ACCC. The 22 October 2024 Progress Report details the level of stockpiles remaining in each state and territory:
- Victoria current stockpiles are approximately 2,360 tonnes
- NSW current stockpiles are approximately 3,120 tonnes
- South Australia current stockpiles are approximately 3,953 tonnes
- WA current stockpiles are approximately 66 pallets.
A trial was introduced in 2024 to start accepting soft plastics. As at 4 October 2024, 36 tonnes of soft plastics have been collected through the instore collection pilot program, which is now operating in 43 stores across New South Wales and Victoria.
A spokesperson for Woolworths told Yahoo news:
“Woolworths is aiming to significantly expand its in-store soft plastics collection trial over the next year, with plans to achieve “full coverage” across 500 stores within the next 12 months.
The supermarket giant claimed its biggest challenge in broadening the trial so far has been the fact there’s not enough soft plastic recycling capacity in Australia to support nationwide collections.
But, speaking to Yahoo News, Woolworths said it will “work toward” increasing collection points from 120 stores currently, to about 500 across metropolitan Sydney, Melbourne, and in parts of southeast Queensland, the ACT and Adelaide in the coming months.
“The Soft Plastics Taskforce has now launched recycling trials in around 120 supermarkets, and has been careful not to exceed limited local recycling capacity as it works with the broader industry to responsibly rebuild the soft plastic recycling system,” a spokesperson said.”
Our cover photo shows the soft plastic recycling station at Woolworths Lane Cove. It is located near the escalator coming up from the car parks.
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