Supermarket Collection of Soft Plastics recommence at Woolworth’s locally

Written By Helen Lewis

Supermarket collections of soft plastics

Soft plastic packaging can continue to be dropped off at Woolworths stores in the Illawarra, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven, Southern Highlands and South Coast.

According to Woolworths’ website the following stores in the Illawarra, Shellharbour, Kiama, Shoalhaven, Southern Highlands and South Coast  should have a collection bin: 

The collected material is currently being sent to two organisations for recycling: saveBOARD in western Sydney (wall panels) and Replas in Melbourne and Ballarat (outdoor furniture, bollards, fence posts and many other products).

The Woolworths website still describes the program as a ‘pilot’, but the retail drop-off network is expected to be transferred to SPSA (Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia) as part of their ongoing national recycling scheme for soft plastics.

Action you can take: If you visit a Woolworths store and can’t find the collection bin, please ask staff. If they don’t know, ask politely if you can speak to the store manager. Also let me know so I can provide feedback to Woolworths’ head office.

What can you recycle at Woolworths?

You can recycle almost any soft plastic packaging as long as its empty, clean and dry. If you want to know more about which plastics can be recycled, SPSA has provided a useful guide.

One of the questions we asked residents in our recent community survey was ‘Were there any soft plastics you were unsure could be recycled?’. While most people were reasonably confident that they knew how to recycle, many problematic items were mentioned. We chased up some answers for you to help with future collections: 

  • Chip packets and other ‘silver lined’ packaging – YES

  • Zip lock bags – YES. If it has a hard plastic zipper, please cut this off.

  • Net fruit bags – YES. If it has a small metal closure, please cut this off.

  • Plastic with paper labels – YES. Ideally remove paper labels before recycling but if you don’t, they will be removed during the recycling process.

  • Frozen fruit & vegetable bags - YES

  • Dog food bulk bags – YES

  • Potting mix bags – YES. Make sure you’ve emptied all the contents. They don’t need to be perfectly clean but need to have minimal residue.

  • Bubble wrap / postal bags with bubble wrap inside – YES

  • Bags with non-plastic handles – YES but remove the handles before recycling.

  • Biscuit containers/trays – NO. These are classified as rigid containers and should be put into your yellow kerbside recycling bin.

  • Pliable soft foam – NO. This material is not recyclable at present.

  • Cellophane – NO. This traditional packaging material is made from cellulose (from plants) and is not recyclable with other soft plastics.

  • Blister packs – NO. You can recycle these at many pharmacies (check the Pharmacycle website for details)

(Editor) The ABC has also produced 2 news articles in recent months on Soft Plastics recycling:

Licella also posted on Soft Plastic recycling being back, linking to the second ABC news article above. LinkedIn on how mechanical and advanced chemical recycling pathways work together to reduce reliance on virgin plastics to enable a truly Circular Economy. Licella’s comment is that while mechanical recycling is scaling up, Australia still needs advanced chemical recycling to move to a circular economy, particularly for food grade packaging. This is where Licella are focused on enabling exactly that with their Altona advanced recycling facility.

Helen Lewis
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