Spreading the news about soft plastics

‘I learned that it is possible to recycle soft plastics – the tricky ones that traditionally have not been recycled. Not many people know that those supermarket collection points are not just for plastic bags but can also take any soft plastics, like wrappers and cling-wrap. RED Group picks it up from the supermarket and puts it to new uses, like outdoor furniture and signage.

‘We have a Coles supermarket right across the road from our city office building, so I put a collection bin in our kitchen with a little sign to start collecting soft plastics. When it was full, I would take it across to the supermarket. It was pretty successful. People put the right stuff in the bin.

‘OEH and EPA joined forces to set up a formal soft plastics collection with RED Group and our building manager for the city office. The building manager rolled out the initiative to all floors in the building to benefit all tenants.

‘We recycled approximately 291 kilograms of soft plastic waste in a year (roughly 73,000 items of plastic packaging) that would otherwise have gone to landfill. For me, the best thing has been the flow-on effect – seeing colleagues and friends adopt this into their lives, at work and at home.’

Erin Roger, Senior Scientist, Science Division