An industry-led trial for recycling soft plastic has been launched by the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) in partnership with the Central Adelaide Waste and Recycling Authority (CAWRA).
The trial is one of several being conducted as part of the National Plastics Recycling Scheme (NPRS) project that aims to produce recycled, food-grade soft plastic packaging that can scale for an emerging advanced recycling industry.
Advanced recycling breaks clean, shredded soft plastics down into new products such as oil – from which plastics are made. The “plastic-crude” oil is then refined and made into new plastic products.
Residents in designated areas (Cities of Adelaide, Charles Sturt, and Port Adelaide Enfield) will receive kits with specially designed bags to be filled with eligible soft plastic packaging. Once the bags are full, they go into the household recycling bin for the regular kerbside collection, after which the special bag will be sent to manufacturers for recycling.
Eligible plastics include bread, frozen veggies, ice cream wrappers, and toilet paper wrap.
John Niarchos, CEO CAWRA, explained that soft plastics are only recyclable if they’re inside the special bags and part of the select households’ part for the trial.
“This trial will help us understand the level of public support for this approach and what take-up we might see here in South Australia,” he said.
“We are deliberately testing slightly different approaches in the three councils.”
Up to 4000 households are participating in the trials across all three cities, where the councils are also testing different types of bags. The Cities of Adelaide and Port Adelaide Enfield will use yellow ‘Curby’ bags and the City of Charles Sturt an orange, translucent bag.
“It is very important that only soft plastics go in the coloured bags to be recycled,” added Niarchos. “If you put loose soft plastics in the bin, we can’t recycle them. If you are not in a trial area, all soft plastics still need to go in your kerbside waste bin.”
The NPRS project trials are supported by funding from the Australian government and Australian food and grocery manufacturers. The South Australian trials have also received funding from Green Industries SA and the participating councils.
