Customers can now return their clean and dry household soft plastics to the Soft Plastics Recycling bins located at the front of participating Woolworths stores as part of a new trial. Please note – this trial is different to the now redundant REDcycle program.
Any soft plastic packaging with the ‘Check locally’, ‘Return to store’ or ‘Store drop off’ Australasian Recycling Label can be placed in the collection bins. This includes plastic bags, bread bags, chip packets, cereal lines and confectionary packaging.
Please also note that compostable bags and other materials (e.g. paper shopping bags, hard plastic, nappies) should not be placed in these bins as they may contaminate the collection and make it difficult for the soft plastics recyclers to process the material. Contamination may result in other material surrounding these items to be sent to landfill.
For safety reasons, customers are asked to only drop off what can fit in the bin. Commercial waste from businesses or bulk soft plastics will not be accepted.
The trial is intended to run for a limited time only. The results will be assessed to help inform plans for a longer-term industry solution for soft plastics collection and recycling in Australia. At present, there are not enough soft plastic recyclers to handle collections from more locations than those currently participating stores.
Soft plastics will be sorted, weighed and sent to a number of recyclers for further processing into items such as food grade packaging, plastic garbage bag liners and flower pots. They will not be stockpiled.
For Samford residents, the closest participating Woolworths stores are at Albany Creek, Eatons Hill, Keperra and Warner.
Further information: https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/discover/sustainability/recycling/soft-plastic
Wendy B