Melbourne supermarkets trial a new soft plastic recycling program

In Melbourne, 12 supermarkets are piloting a new soft plastic recycling scheme, aiming to succeed where the previous REDcycle program failed.

Anya Phelan reports for The Conversation.


In short:

  • The trial follows REDcycle's collapse, focusing on "scrunchable" food packaging recycling in a smaller, more manageable scale.
  • Australia's Soft Plastics Taskforce, formed post-REDcycle, is spearheading this initiative, exploring sustainable end-uses for recycled plastics.
  • Challenges include the complex nature of soft plastic recycling and the need for local, decentralized solutions to improve efficiency.

Why this matters:

This initiative is crucial for reducing landfill waste and pollution, highlighting the need for innovative, local recycling solutions in tackling environmental challenges. It represents a significant step in sustainable waste management, potentially influencing national policies on recycling and environmental conservation.

Chemical recycling “a dangerous deception” for solving plastic pollution.

About the author(s):

EHN Curators
EHN Curators
Articles curated and summarized by the Environmental Health News' curation team. Some AI-based tools helped produce this text, with human oversight, fact checking and editing.

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