Soft plastic recycling scheme Redcycle collapses after stockpiling rubbish for months in warehouses.

An Aussie company claiming to recycle soft plastics has instead been shipping materials dropped off by customers at major supermarkets Coles and Woolworths to warehouses where they have been sitting stockpiling for months. Aussies who have been taking the time to drop their soft plastics off have been left bitterly disappointed after it was revealed the rubbish was not being recycled at all.

REDcycle was founded in 2011, with the Melbourne-based company encouraging Australians to drop off their unwanted soft plastics to be recycled, instead of letting them go into landfill.

The company has partnered with Coles and Woolworths, with drop-off points at nearly 2000 supermarkets across the country.

REDcycle claims to have collected more than 3600 tonnes of plastic, including items such as shopping bags, chip packets, cling film, bread bags and bubble wrap. The company says these things can be recycled into furniture, playground equipment garden edging, wheel stops, and materials for walkways in parks, roads and bollards. But for months now, the plastics that have been diligently collected and dropped off by customers haven’t been being recycled at all.

Woolworths said it was blindsided by the “disappointing” news, while Coles confirmed it would follow Woolies’ lead and suspend its REDcycle soft plastic collections. The Sydney Morning Herald revealed, up until now, the company had failed to publicly announce the recycling component of the program had been suspended, meaning piles of plastics had been building up in warehouses for months.

The company has now announced it will be temporarily pausing its soft plastics collection program from today, November 9, with no confirmation of when it will resume. REDcycle said consumer recycling of soft plastic has grown “exponentially” in recent years, with a 350 per cent increase since 2019.

“However, due to several unforeseen challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, REDcycle’s recycling partners have temporarily stopped accepting and processing soft plastics,” the company said.

“This combination has put untenable pressure on the REDcycle business model.”

In June 2022, Close the Loop, the largest volume offtake partner of REDcycle, experienced a “significant” fire that forced their facility to close for reconstruction. Another offtake partner, Replas, suffered “significant pandemic-related downturns in market demand”, along with challenges like the delayed commercialisation of new products.

As a result of these issues, REDcycle said it took the “unwanted but necessary decision” to hold the material that had been donated in storage at “great personal expense” to the company. It is not clear exactly how much soft plastics are currently being stored by the company.

Collections at Coles and Woolies to cease

In a email sent to Coles customers overnight Steven Cain Coles Group CEO said that REDcycle soft plastic collections would be paused until further noticed due to “industry-wide challenges”.

“This means we will be unable to accept soft plastic recycling returns in Coles stores and through Coles Online at this time. Sustainability is as important to Coles as it is to our customers and partners,”

“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.”

Further to this Coles Group boss says the supermarket giant intends to apply for the competition regulator’s approval as early as this week to be able to work with Woolworths and other rivals on new ideas for soft plastics recycling, after its long-time partner was outed as stockpiling plastic bags in warehouses instead of recycling.

A Woolworths spokesperson said that the supermarket giant was “only recently informed” about the number of challenges facing the REDcycle network.

“Redcycle has advised that it will no longer be able to collect the soft plastic returned by customers from our stores, effective immediately,” the spokesperson said.

“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 are disappointed by this situation. We sincerely apologise to our customers and we’re working to return access to soft plastic recycling as soon as possible.”

Woolworths said it was 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”.