Sustainability in Action

09 Feb, 2024

Soft Plastics Recycling Resumes in Australia with Trial

From February 7^th, the major Australian supermarket retailers that make up the Soft Plastics Taskforce will commence a trial to restart instore collections for soft plastics.

Who is operating the trial?

The soft plastics recycling trial is led by the Soft Plastics Taskforce, chaired by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) with Coles, Woolworths and ALDI participating.

Close the Loop are supporting the Taskforce as one of their recycling partners, however the program is not run or managed by Close the Loop. 

Drop-off locations include:

Woolworths: Balwyn, Box Hill, Burwood, Carnegie North and Hawthorn East

Coles: Northcote, Flemington, Ivanhoe, Brunswick and Moonee Ponds

ALDI: Prahran and St Kilda

The smaller initial trial phase for soft plastics recycling allows the opportunity for the program to scale-up in-line with recycling and processing capacity in Australia, which will safeguard against the shortcomings of the previous program. This includes a focus on data and traceability frameworks to ensure ongoing success for future expansion of soft plastics recycling nationally.

What products can be recycled through the trial?

What will happen to the soft plastics collected?

Close the Loop is one of the supporting recycling partners for the program. Soft Plastics provided to our facility in Melbourne’s north will be processed with zero waste to landfill into our engineered asphalt additive TonerPlas® or our injection moulding grade of recycled resin rFlex® for use in products such as shipping pallets, baskets and shopping trolleys.

When will soft plastics recycling be available across Australia?

To avoid stockpiling of materials, it is vital that Australia increases its soft plastics recycling capacity in-line with the availability of collection services. While many plastic recycling initiatives are currently underway in Australia, there is limited capacity in the short-term to recycle these materials until additional facilities come online.

When we have further capacity to recycle these materials around the nation, we will see soft plastics recycling availability increase.

More information on the soft plastics trial can be found at the below, and any questions regarding the trial should be referred to the participating retailers involved.

https://www.woolworths.com.au/shop/discover/sustainability/recycling/soft-plastic

Coles Media Release