A soft plastics recycling scheme operating at major supermarkets has been suspended after the company running it said it could no longer offload the material to recyclers.
The REDcycle scheme has been operating at Coles and Woolworths supermarkets, and the company says it has helped divert billions of pieces of soft plastic material like shopping bags away from landfill.
However, REDcycle now says its collection will be paused because its recycling partners have temporarily stopped accepting and processing soft plastics.
The company said there had been a 350 per cent increase in plastic being returned since 2019, but issues related to the pandemic had put "untenable pressure" on its business model.
REDcycle founder Liz Kasell said the company will hold the material it has collected in storage until the scheme can resume.
"Our team is devastated that the program will be paused and we are going to do everything that we can, in partnership with retail, industry and government, to have it back up and running again soon."
Ms Kasell said there were currently no recycling organisations able to process soft plastic in Australia, but she was hopeful the scheme could resume next year.
"I started this program from my kitchen table when I looked at a bag of peas and asked why on earth can't this be recycled?"
"Through this program my goal has been to enable and empower people in the community like me to make a positive impact on the environment."
Issues with plastic recycling partners
REDcycle said the move to suspend the scheme followed a significant fire at the recycling facility operated by its partner Close the Loop.
Its other partner, Replas, has experienced "significant pandemic-related downturns in market demand as well as other challenges", according to REDcycle.
REDcycle advised people to put their soft plastic waste in the rubbish bin rather than returning it to collection points at supermarkets.
Australian Council of Recycling CEO Suzanne Toumbourou said the suspension was "disappointing" but she was confident the scheme would be revived.
"It's a moment in time, it's absolutely not the end of the story for soft plastics recycling," she told ABC Radio Melbourne.
Ms Toumbourou said REDcycle had suffered as a result of a lack of recycling infrastructure investment in the soft plastics sector.
"That infrastructure has been growing. There hasn't been enough and it hasn't met the really excellent collection that has been underway in the community."
Call for more investment in recycling
Jeff Angel from recycling advocacy group Boomerang Alliance said the suspension of the scheme was a wake-up call for the soft plastics recycling sector.
"REDcycle was never a permanent solution, it was always very voluntary both at a consumer level and getting producers to use it for recycled content," he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
"About 336,000 tonnes of soft plastics are used in Australia each year and only a very small percentage of that was being recycled."
He called for mandatory recycled content requirements for companies producing soft plastics to encourage them to reuse more material.
"It would mean that the producers of soft plastic would invest much more heavily in the collection system beyond the supermarkets, they might expand it to a special kerbside arrangement," he said.
Coles said the collection of soft plastics at its supermarkets had been paused until further notice.
"Sustainability is as important to Coles as it is to our customers and partners," a supermarket spokesperson said.
"We are committed to our Together to zero waste ambition and are working with government, industry and sustainability partners to find a long-term solution for soft plastics recycling in Australia."
