30 November 2022, Australia: In November 2022, REDcycle announced the temporary pause of its soft plastics collection program in Australia. The REDcycle program has been a significant contributor to the recycling ecosystem and understandably, many Australians will be concerned about what this means for soft plastic recycling and collection.
We’re committed to working collaboratively with industry partners, retailers and Government to find a solution which enables the prompt resumption of a nationwide recycling program to keep soft plastics within the circular economy. In the meantime, to avoid confusion, we’ve started to remove the REDCycle logo and guidance to ‘return to store’ on our packaging. These updates will take some time to fully roll out and you will continue to see the REDCycle logo on our products for some time.
For the longer term, Australia needs a larger scale program to recycle soft plastics. That’s why we’re a foundation supporter of the AFGC National Plastics Recycling Scheme (NPRS) which is developing a model for kerbside collection of soft plastic packaging so that it can be sorted and made available for advanced recycling here in Australia. The first in a series of kerbside soft plastic collection trials has started, with some residents in certain local government areas across the country already participating. Kerbside collection will be vital in tackling Australia’s soft plastics challenge, and it will also help set us up to be a leader in advanced recycling. For more information on the NPRS, visit here.
What to do with your soft plastic packaging?
Australia
Store drop-off is currently not an option for soft plastics as the bins have been removed from all supermarkets. A small number of councils have started to pilot kerbside recycling trials for soft plastics – please check with your local council if you are part of this trial. If kerbside recycling is not available in your area, you will need to dispose of the soft plastic packaging in the bin.
New Zealand
The NZ Soft Plastics recycling scheme is still in operation, and soft plastic packaging can be recycled in participating stores where NZ Soft Plastics collection bins are located.
What is Unilever doing to reduce plastic waste?
Unilever has an ambition to halve our plastics footprint by 2025, by designing out plastic from packaging wherever possible, incorporating recycled content into our plastic packaging and designing all packaging to be recyclable, compostable or reusable by 2025. Please see here for more information on what we’re doing to reduce packaging waste.