Australian Supermarkets Form Taskforce to Combat Collapse of Recycling Program

A Woolworths truck is parked outside a Coles Supermarket in Melbourne, Australia, on May 25, 2015. Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

Supermarket giants Coles, Woolworths, and ALDI will form a task force to address the suspension of a soft plastic recycling program following the collapse of REDcycle.

REDcycle halted its soft plastic program on Nov. 9 citing “unforeseen challenges exacerbated by the pandemic” with its downstream recycling partners.

The interim application of the “Soft Plastics Taskforce” was conditionally authorised by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which will allow the supermarket giants to work together to find a solution.

Usually, such collaboration between major competitors would contravene the Competition and Consumer Act (CCA).

However, the ACCC may grant an authorisation if it is deemed the likely public benefit from the conduct between the companies outweighs any likely public detriment.

“We have moved quickly to approve the interim application as the suspension of the REDcycle program stopped in-store collections of soft plastic, raising community concerns and an urgent need to address the environmental risk of the existing stockpile and future waste,” ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh said in a media statement.

The supermarkets will have a limited time to explore options for “storage, transport, processing, recycling, and management of soft plastics to minimise the volume that may end up in landfill,” Keogh said.

“The application envisages that a longer-term solution to the issue of recycling soft plastics is needed and that the proposed conduct will not detract from or adversely affect the development of longer-term solutions.”

This photo taken on April 17, 2019 shows recycled plastic bottles at the Northern Adelaide Waste Management Authority's recycling site in Edinburgh, near Adelaide. Brenton Edwards/AFP via Getty Images

Since 2011, REDcycle has been the only instore soft plastics recycling program in Australia, where consumers could return their soft plastic to their local major supermarkets for recycling.

REDcycle said the pause to their soft plastic collection program was due to several unforeseen challenges, and that their “recycling partners have temporarily stopped accepting and processing soft plastics.”

Meanwhile, a former major contractor said that REDcycle had been stockpiling large volumes of collected soft plastic items in multiple warehouses around the country since 2018, reported The Sydney Morning Herald.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that one of REDcycle’s recycling partners, Replas, paid REDcycle to supply soft plastic items collected from Coles, Woolworths, and ALDI to help manufacture its products, such as outdoor seating and fencing.

Replas has been manufacturing recycled plastic products from plastic waste for over 30 years in Victoria’s regional town of Ballarat.

Replas general manager Paul Hone found out about the collection pause of REDcycle at the same time as the public but said they were ready to “take the material from REDcycle, or whoever might be able to supply it,” reported the ABC.

Since the pause of the recycling program, Hone said Replas would be impacted financially but would secure recycled materials for its products elsewhere to keep the production line running.

Consumer recycling of soft plastic has increased by 350 percent since 2019. Since REDcycle’s launch over 10 years ago, they have diverted over 5 billion pieces of soft plastics from entering landfill, said REDcycle founder Liz Kasell.

In partnership with World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Plastic Free Foundation, Ipsos conducted a survey and released the findings on Nov. 23. The survey (pdf) suggested that 80 percent of Australians believe it is important or very important to ensure that manufacturers and retailers are responsible for reducing, reusing, and recycling their packaging.

A total of 78 percent of Australians say unnecessary single-use plastics should be banned, while 78 percent support the requirement for all new plastic products to contain recycled plastic, and 78 percent support a ban on types of plastic that cannot be recycled easily.

Since Coles, Woolworths, and ALDI have halted soft plastic collections, consumers are encouraged to put their soft plastic in the home rubbish bins, as soft plastics are not recyclable through the home kerbside recycling service.

New Target to End Plastic Pollution by 2040

The Australian government has joined the High Ambition Coalition (HAC) to “End Plastic Pollution” by 2040, joining the global effort under a new plastic pollution treaty.

Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek announced in a media release on Nov. 16 that “Australia will join the coalition of like-minded countries, co-led by Norway and Rwanda, including the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Canada, ahead of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee Meeting (INC1) in Uruguay later this year.”

The statement says that, with plastic production and consumption set to triple globally by 2060, the HAC aims to end plastic pollution by 2040 with new and effective control measures to:

• Restrain plastic consumption and production to sustainable levels
• Enable a circular economy for plastics that protects the environment and human health
• Achieve environmentally sound management and recycling of plastic waste

Plibersek said that the government had also fulfilled a promise at the United Nations Oceans Conference that Australia would sign up for the New Plastics Economy Global Commitment by the end of 2022.

“Through the High Ambition Coalition and the Global Commitment, we look forward to strengthening partnerships across the globe to stamp out plastic pollution,” she said.

“Plastic pollution is a global problem and it’s going to require global solutions.”