By Marcus Uhe
Plastic recycling business REDcycle has taken the shine off of National Recycling Week by announcing a pause to its soft plastic collections program on Wednesday 9 November.
The company had soft-plastic recycling bins at major supermarkets such as Coles and Woolworths for customers to return eligible products, before taking them to their recycling partners.
In a statement of their website, the business said that “unforeseen challenges exacerbated by the pandemic” had meant their recycling partners had been forced to spot accepting the returned materials and put “untenable pressure” on their business model.
“Consumer recycling of soft plastic has grown exponentially in recent years, with a 350% increase in plastic returned since 2019,” REDcycle said in a statement.
“We can’t confirm at this stage the length of the pause, but we can assure you that all stakeholders are working on solutions for the short-term pipeline imbalance.
“REDcycle and retail partners are committed to having the program back up and running as soon as possible.”
One partner, Close The Loop, experienced a fire at their facility in June 2022, forcing the closure of their facility for reconstruction, while another, Replas, experienced “significant pandemic-related downturns in market demand” as well as other challenges including the delayed commercialisation of new products.
REDcycle encouraged customers to put their soft plastics into their household waste bin instead of attempting to return them.
A Woolworths spokesperson said they were disappointed with the situation.
“Redcycle has only recently informed us of a number of challenges in their recycling network and a delay in new recycling capacity becoming available,” the spokespersons said.
“Redcycle has advised that it will no longer be able to collect the soft plastic returned by customers from our stores, effective immediately.
“Regrettably, this means customers will not be able to recycle their household soft plastic at our stores until collections are able to recommence or an alternative solution can be found.
“We sincerely apologise to our customers and we’re working to return access to soft plastic recycling as soon as possible.
“We are currently working through a range of options with the Australian Food and Grocery Council, the Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation, and the recycling industry to support the future of soft plastic recycling.”
