REDcycle soft plastic recycling collapse

Planet Earth
21

There are many ways to reuse waste plastics.
Being able to use them to remanufacture the same product as original is not always possible.
There is most often a repurposing into a different plastic product and use.

There is a cost in energy to collect plastic waste. There is a cost in energy and additional raw materials in creating the new products. There may be a lesser impact from the second life. Would one want the total cost to the environment to be a net gain compared to not having the original plastic?

Ultimately how the recycled product is used can risk adding more micro plastics to the environment. To be environmentally sound the use of plastics requires a zero loss outcome. Is it acceptable if their use relies on an ongoing supply of new plastic?

Greenwashing if the focus on recycling is used to draw attention away from the root cause.
IE Recycling is better than not. Not creating the original source plastic is the ultimate solution.

Is it honest to suggest plastics will ever be sustainable?

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22

One never knows for sure given nature, technology, and timelines sometimes presenting unexpected opportunities. An underlying question is whether ‘it’ can happen before the earth is essentially strangled and how to manage it along the way.

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23

For a start it depends on whether the plastics are made from petrochemicals (non-renewable) or not.

As you suggest, there are a lot of factors involved.

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24

It’s National hoodwinking all over again - The attitude of Big Business, especially multinationals, is to let us believe we are doing something that is environmentally good, a little task we can handle, while they get on with their Free Market production and sale of goods that are swathed in billions of tonnes of non-recyclable plastic and other packaging.

Almost every single hard item that is delivered into a home, factory, office, shop, hospital, doctors’ surgery etc is plastic - PVC or the ilk, or is swathed in plastic, polystyrene and cardboard. From a mobile phone, fridge, kitchen sink, taps, screws, timber, Covid testing kits, new cars, trucks, computers, light-fittings, pillows, newspapers, catalogues, annual reports, office chairs, dining chairs, televisions - the list is endless.

They failed us on cardboard, hard plastic and glass recycling too. Although they do better on the recycling of cardboard, how devastated were we to find that after all our patience and time sorting waste into various bins and remembering which week it is and so which bin do I put out, it was being dumped in warehouses or paddocks - or being shipped to Asian countries to pollute villages and rivers - because of deals done, bribes paid.

Another warehouse full of recycling goods went up in flames in recent days. Funny that.
What is the state of play? Are the contents of our yellow bins being recycled? Not even the councillors know.
Coca Cola Amatil and Schweppes continue to pump billions of plastic bottles into the World every day, including water filled, in full knowledge that only a very small percentage will be recycled.

It’s time for the PLASTIC producers to get the treatment the TOBACCO industry was given.
Plastic is killing each and every one of us. It’s not just about the bag you put that broccoli in.

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25

An example of where this is going to occur:

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Now repeat x 10,000 …

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27

The last chapter and verse for Redcycle.

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28

A postscript in progress, including a few words that suggest REDcycle might not have been all it appeared, or just bad luck or a speculative venture anticipating possibilities that did not eventuate?

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29

Still a future without guarantees it will happen but next in the queue is

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Plastic packaging is a relatively recent invention. We can live without it, and we should. 7 out of every 8 kilos of waste plastic in Australia ends up in landfill. Too much of the rest ends up in the ocean.

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I had totally forgotten about Curby. Dowloaded the app and joined. Now awaiting my bags and tags. I have quite a collection of supermarket plastic bags here. Don’t know why they all cant do paper like Woolies does. (For home delivery, that is)

https://www.curbyit.com/ it seems easy to get with the program

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Curby appears to only be available in 3 NSW non-metro councils
image

and in ‘trial’ in 2 SA metro councils as of now :frowning:

This is only revealed if one reads through the app after ‘signing on’ or views it near the bottom of their web page after being encouraged to install the app. Good way to advertise and gleen interest but feel misled – for most of us Curbyit remains an unknown future dependent on councils and recyclers agreeing to participate so probably a very slow rollout across the country and susceptible to other programs being rolled out here and there.

I would not have had an issue excepting for the ‘registration’ process being devoid of ‘this is not for you yet’ advice.

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33

TBH I thought it had expanded beyond here, CC and Tamworth… guess I was wrong.

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Despite best intentions we are still finding everyday products with packaging labelled return to store for recycling!

In the interim Coles and Woolworths are struggling to find a solution to replace the previous export market.

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35

Yes. This bugs me a bit too. How much does it reflect packaging procurement pipelines? Product inventories? And how much is it the hope that REDcycle will be resurrected? And how much is it that they don’t give a ****?

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36

There are plans for a new soft plastic scheme to be implemented nationally and why the labels still have the return to store for soft plastics. Woolworths which is part of the Soft Plastics Task Force and have some information on their website:

https://www.woolworthsgroup.com.au/au/en/media/latest-news/2023/soft-plastics-taskforce-lays-out-path-to--restore-soft-plastic-r.html

and

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37

Well you know what they say talk is.

I saw on the news about some guy who is still stockpiling all his soft plastic in the hope that one day REDcycle does get resurrected. If there are too many people doing that then the system will immediately collapse again once it is resurrected. :open_mouth: (Yes, this could be managed provided that the supermarkets are aware that this could be a problem.)

Talking about resurrecting REDcycle also discourages change upstream i.e. to move away from plastic packaging / to move away from unnecessary packaging altogether.

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38

I understand that this is also a consideration/strategy of the Soft Plastic Taskforce. Reducing its generation would be the number 1 strategy. That which can’t be reduced (avoided use in packaging) becomes part of the recycling stream.

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39

12 stores across 3 companies in Melbourne area are resuming soft plastic collection. Symbolic or a restart?

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40

Sounds like they intend a restart, subject to more soft plastics recyclers starting up elsewhere around the country:

“We know people were let down by REDcycle, and we’re managing this process carefully to ensure that the program which eventually replaces it is one the community can trust.

“The biggest challenge still remains – there are simply not enough soft plastic recyclers up and running to allow us to expand collections to supermarkets across the country just yet.”

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