Two years on from REDcycle’s collapse, 94% of Australia’s soft plastics are still headed for landfill. Collection has restarted at supermarkets, and 42 warehouses of plastics have been cleared, but experts say the packaging industry must take responsibility for the mess.
By July, supermarkets had mostly cleared the stockpiles, which by November 2022 reached 11,000 tonnes of soft plastics at 44 sites across the country, hoards accumulated as collections outstripped available recycling capacity and export restrictions increased the amount of plastic waste in Australia.