Soft plastics recycling FAQ

V1: 16 September 2025

  1. Where can I recycle my household soft plastics?

  • The Illawarra Shoalhaven Joint Organisation (ISJO) is hosting drop-off events for soft plastics in October and November 2025. For details see https://isjo.nsw.gov.au/soft-plastics/. 

  • You can also drop household soft plastics off for recycling at Flagstaff Group, 262 Nolan Street, Unanderra at limited times: 

    • Monday - Thursday 4:15pm - 4:45pm and Saturdays 8am - 10:45am. 

  1. Which soft plastics are recyclable? 

  • Your soft plastics must be CLEAN, DRY AND EMPTY.

  • Soft plastics are flexible plastics that can be easily scrunched into a ball.

  • Most soft plastics are recyclable, with some exceptions (see below). 

  • Remove any contaminants before recycling e.g. large stickers, metal zips etc.


YES ✔

Biscuit wrap and other snack wrappers

Chip packets and other foil lined snack wrappers

Soft plastic fresh produce bags

Cereal liners

Frozen food and veggie bags

Soft plastic fruit netting (with the metal bits cut off)

Soft plastic toilet paper wrapping

Soft plastic bread bags (cut off any large stickers)

Plastic carry bags

Protective plastic film used in consumer goods packaging

Dry pet food bags

Cling wrap

Plastic mulch and potting mix bags (clean)

Bubble wrap

Plastic zip lock bags

Document sleeves

Mail carrier bags

NO

Any hard plastic

Plastic biscuit trays 

Plastic punnets (e.g. for berries)

Plastic lined paper bags

Biodegradable/compostable plastics

Dirty packaging (e.g. with food residue)

Meat trays 

Zippers (hard plastic and metal) on soft plastic packaging (cut off before recycling)

String used to sew up sides of large plastic bags (cut off before recycling)

Cheese and meat wrappers (many contain chlorine)




  1. How are soft plastics recycled? 

  • End-markets are still limited but growing slowly, which is why collection of soft plastics is not as widespread as we’d like it to be right now. This is changing though. Examples of current end markets:

  • IQ Renew (Kundle Kundle, near Taree) is the first purpose-built soft plastics recycling facility in Australia. They sell plastic flake and pellets to manufacturers who make fence posts, bins, FOGO caddies and a range of other products. A video showing their recycling process can be viewed here.

  • Close the Loop (Melbourne) process material into a product called TonerPlas, which is added to asphalt to improve the flexibility and durability of roads, and an injection moulding resin called rFlex that can be used to make a wide range of products.

  • APR (Melbourne): process soft plastics into an oil so that it can be remanufactured back into plastics. APR is building a commercial plant in Melbourne expected to be operational late 2025. The plan is to convert it to food grade plastic packaging. 

  • It’s important that local councils and other organisations start to buy these products to make sure the markets are sustainable, and we don’t see a repeat of the REDcycle collapse.

  1. Why do we need to reduce and recycle our waste?

  • Wollongong Council collects kerbside bins from households (red, yellow and green) 130 times each year. For the average household, this equates to 1,100 kg of waste being generated each year. 

  • Landfill space is limited and will become scarcer over time. Waste is also a high cost to councils (and paid by residents through their rates) – Wollongong Council expects it to cost $48 million in 2025-26.

Source: Wollongong Council newsletter, June 2025

  1. Roughly what percentage of landfilled waste is soft plastic? 

  • We don’t have any data on this, but according to Shellharbour’s most recent kerbside bin audit, soft plastics comprise about 7 per cent of their resident’s red lidded bin (general waste) content. Source: Region Illawarra

  1. How much soft plastic waste does the average Australian consumer produce every year? 

  • Around 1.3 million tonnes of plastic packaging were placed on the Australian market in 2022-23. Of this, 540,000 t (43%) was soft plastics. 

  • If we take out soft plastics used by businesses and institutions (which is mostly pallet wrap), 420,000 tonnes was used for consumer (household) packaging. 

  • Given that we have a population of just over 26 million, the average of amount of soft plastic waste generated by each person was around 16 kg. 

Source: APCO (2024), Australian packaging consumption and recycling data 2022-23

  • It has also been estimated that we use around 3,000 pieces of soft plastics per person per year (Source: Curby)

  1. How much soft plastic waste is currently recycled in Australia? 

  • In 2022-23 34,000 tonnes of soft plastics were recycled (15%). Most of this was business-to-business packaging, for example pallet wrap.

  • This was a fall from the previous year (62,000 t), attributed to the export restrictions introduced by the Australian Government.

Source: APCO (2024), Australian packaging consumption and recycling data 2022-23

  1. How long does it take a single layer and multi-layered soft plastic to break down in landfill? 

  • This is unknown, but depending on the product it could be 20-500 years. Source: WWF Australia

  1. How much money does landfill, or other ways of disposing of soft plastic that we might consider unsustainable, cost? 

  • Recycling soft plastics avoids landfill costs ($472/m³ in the Illawarra).

  • The recent soft plastics recycling trialhttps://www.curbyit.com/softplastics/ cost approximately $3,000 per tonne processed (including staffing, traffic management, baling, and transport).

  • Landfill Savings:  Diverting 2.4 tonnes or 9m3 of baled soft plastics equates to $4,248 in landfill space savings.

  • Additional benefits include social interest and reach with the project being covered by at least ten local media publications, resulting in positive reputational benefits for Councils and the ISJO.

Source: ISJO report to councils

  1. Is biodegradable ‘plastic’ packaging a better solution than recycling?

  • There are different types of plastics labelled ‘biodegradable’. Some have a role and others are simply Greenwash.

    • Compostable packaging: There is a role for plastic packaging that has been certified ‘compostable’ to an Australian Standard, which means they will break down safely in the necessary timeframe. 

    • Commercially compostable packaging: The challenge is that in Australia we don’t yet have widely available composting facilities that can process these plastics, and in NSW all paper and packaging are banned from FOGO due to concerns about PFAS contamination (although the situation is different in places like SA). Packaging labelled ‘commercially compostable’ is therefore not a solution at present in NSW. This may change in future as commercial composting facilities become more widely available and if regulations change to allow the addition of  compostable packaging.

    • Home compostable packaging: Packaging that has been certified ‘home compostable’ can be safely composted at home, but this is not a solution for most people. Compostable packaging cannot be recycled with other soft plastics.

    • Biodegradable or landfill degradable plastics: These are usually conventional plastics that have an additive that help them to break down faster. These are not a solution as they create microplastics as they break down in the environment, are non-compostable and non-recyclable. 

More information: Australasian Bioplastics Association

  1. Where else are household soft plastics being recycled?

  • The Curby program is available to residents in the following council areas in NSW (the opt-in program that allows residents to fill an orange bag and add it to their yellow kerbside bin):

  • Central Coast Council

  • Tamworth Regional Council

  • City of Newcastle

  • Mosman Council


  • The retailer led Soft Plastic Taskforce pilot collections are underway in select Woolworths, Coles and Aldi stores in Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle/mid north coast NSW (none yet in the Illawarra region):

  • Woolworths – Melbourne, Sydney, Newcastle to the mid-north coast (NSW)

  • Coles – Melbourne


  • The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) ran pilot collections in partnership with the following councils:



  • There are two companies that provide a user-pays service for soft plastics recycle:

  1. Why is it important to recycle soft plastics?

  • According to APCO, recycling soft plastics is essential because it helps reduce the amount of waste going to landfills and minimises the consumption of new resources. By recycling soft plastics, we can conserve energy, decrease greenhouse gas emissions, and contribute to a more sustainable and circular economy.


  • APCO estimate that every tonne of plastics diverted from landfill for recycling avoids around 1.88 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions (p. 148). This is mainly due to the fact that recycled single-use packaging typically requires less manufacturing energy inputs, compared with single-use packaging that is disposed to landfill.

  1. How can I find out what I can recycle in my council area?

  • For recycling in the Illawarra:

    • Check the Wollongong Council App, Our Waste

    • Check your Council websites:

      • Wollongong

      • Shellharbour

      • Kiama

      • Shoalhaven


Where possible, avoid soft plastics where possible. When it is unavoidable, please recycle your Soft Plastics. please the the Soft Plastics FAQ for information on what is and is not soft plastic