Soft-plastic recycling scheme RedCycle has collapsed amid a revelation by the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) that millions of bags and soft-plastic items have been “secretly stockpiled” in warehouses for months instead of being recycled.
The program formally announced its suspension this week due to “untenable pressure” on its business model, and several recycling partners who temporarily stopped accepting soft plastic for recycling.
Despite the lack of partners, the company has continued to collect up to 5 million plastic items daily from supermarkets and, for several months, kept large volumes in warehouses.
RedCycle said in a statement that its team took the tough decision to keep the material in storage for the “short term” because they wanted to keep the plastic out of landfills and have been “working tirelessly” to find alternative solutions.
“Our team is devastated that the program will be paused, and we will do everything that we can to have it back up and running again soon,” said Liz Kasell, founder and CEO, RedCycle.
Lucinda Moje-O’Brien, a student from Melbourne, told SMH she felt betrayed after discovering that the soft plastics she had donated were not being recycled as promised.
“They’re not holding up their end of the deal,” said Moje-O’Brien. “Coles and Woolworths need to find someone who will.”
Meanwhile, spokespersons for the supermarkets said they were only recently made aware that collections would be paused.
Close the Loop, one of the company’s recycling partners, told RedCycle in a letter of intent that it would continue to accept significant volumes of soft plastic, but early to the middle of next year when its processing lines are operational. The facility said it would be able to process up to 5000 tonnes of material annually.
Another of the program’s partners, the IQ Renew plant in Victoria, recently received $3 million in funding in October and could increase its capacity to recycle 30,000 tonnes of soft plastic into food-grade packaging materials.
