Redcycle was started by seven mums in Melbourne who wanted to see soft plastics recycled. Their efforts resulted in the creation of a national program that saw some of Australia’s largest producers of soft plastics provide collection points for used soft plastics from customers, which were then sent to Redcycle to be recycled into new products. As you may have heard, Redcycle ‘paused’ their operations in November 2022 due to a fire at the manufacturing facility of their biggest customer, Close The Loop, earlier in the year. Close the Loop was then unable to use the raw materials supplied by Redcycle. Redcycle has since come under intense scrutiny for stockpiling several thousand tons of soft plastics and not adequately informing the public, their recycling partners, which included Coles and Woolworths, or the Victorian EPA about their situation. Close The Loop has announced it hopes to resume operations and begin accepting soft plastics by mid 2023. Until then, Redcycle advises that soft plastic be disposed of as general waste for landfill as it is not currently recycleable – soft plastics cannot be handled by current recycling machinery.
You can see Redcycle’s response to the public’s concerns here.
Redcycle’s problems highlight several glaring realities – like why is there no comprehensive national or state plastics recycling program? Why are large producers not compelled to be responsible for collecting and dealing with what is essentially their waste appropriately? Why was it left to a group of mums to come up with a solution for this problem in the first place? We will be following this story and providing updates as they become available.