Two Australian recycling companies – IQ Renew and RedCycle – have partnered to boost recovery and recycling of soft plastics such as bread bags and ice-cream wrappers.
In a move described by Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) CEO Tanya Barden as “an exciting development that adds vital scale to Australia’s soft plastics recycling capabilities,” the two companies will link RedCycle’s network of partners and drop-off points for used plastics with IQ Renew’s material processing technology to boost the volume of soft plastics being converted into other products, reducing the waste dumped at landfills.
The partnership will speed up the development of a purpose-built soft-plastic engineered commodity (SPEC) plant to create a local source of high-quality materials for recycled products.
“The AFGC and the food and grocery manufacturers that we represent have worked closely with RedCycle and IQ Renew to develop packaging recycling in Australia and it’s an exciting development to have these two organisations combine forces,” said Barden.
“This is a significant step in building the scale industry needs for a truly circular economy in packaging and soft plastics.”
The AFGC will continue working with RedCycle and IQ Renew on the development of Australia’s National Plastics Recycling Scheme (NPRS) that will create new capacity across the nation for recycling soft plastic packagings such as bread and cereal bags, frozen vegetable bags and ice-cream wrappers.
The program is also expected to drive the creation of an end-to-end solution that captures soft plastics and returns them to the market as a valuable new resource.
