The RedCycle soft plastic recycling scheme collapsed last year, with the discovery that the company had been stockpiling plastics in warehouses around the country. Their recycling partners couldn't keep up with the demand, as Australians used more and more soft plastic every day.
Coles and Woolworths have been looking for alternatives to send our growing mountain of waste, for someone else to deal with. A recent article in ABC News covers this topic. From the article:
"Australia's major supermarkets have started sending samples of soft plastics overseas to be recycled, as they deal with the legacy of thousands of tonnes of stockpiled plastics from the collapsed REDcycle scheme."
"Victoria's environmental watchdog charged REDcycle in December, alleging the company secretly stockpiled 3,000 tonnes of soft plastics across nine sites."
"In the meantime, most Australians have been left without a way to recycle the 70 billion pieces of soft plastics consumed every year, as the supermarkets work out a way to deal with the stockpiles, and start a new soft plastics collection scheme."
The scale of this problem is huge, and it is only one part of the luxurious and wasteful lifestyle that most Australians live.
"In order to deal with the scale, the supermarkets have started sending samples to Germany, and to a company in the US state of Texas, to trial advanced chemical recycling. Australia used to send much of its waste overseas, particularly to China, but in 2018, China stopped accepting a wide range of waste."
I am unsure of how this whole situation would be environmentally friendly. Collect up the soft plastic waste that all Australians produce, put it in containers, transport the containers to a ship, take the ship across the world to the US, or possibly some other country, and use more energy and chemicals to convert the plastic into more plastic. Then ship that plastic to a place that will package products, often also made out of plastic, before shipping back to Australia so we can continue consuming more products. This is not sustainable at all!
Like many environmental issues, we are focused on the wrong end of the problem. Yes, we need recycling capabilities, but I liken it to the analogy of an overflowing bathtub. Do you get a mop and start cleaning up the spilled water first? Or do you turn off the tap?
Our plastic usage has been increasing for years and will continue to increase unless our culture and habits change. Recycling programs are not keeping up with past and present usage, let alone account for future growth. We need change at the source. Reduce and reuse come BEFORE recycling in the hierarchy of using less resources. This needs to be reflected in all of our lives.
Read the whole ABC article here. Then come in and shop at Twist and Sprout, where we help you reduce your plastic use, especially single use plastic. It shouldn't be up to every individual to remove single use plastic from their lives. Especially in rural and regional areas, most food comes in single use plastic. At my shop, I'm doing my best to remove plastic from at least the consumer end of the supply chain.
I still produce soft plastic waste in my store. I have not been able to find any food and cleaning wholesaler that provides returnable, reusable or compostable packaging. I am currently working through my stash of plastics (in my copious amounts of spare time of course) to make eco bricks - plastic bottles stuffed full of chopped up soft plastics. They will be used for a construction project at home in the future. And at least for the people of my local area, they are able to shop for groceries and household items and return home without any single use packaging in their bags.
Comments