It’s time to lift your recycling game and make a commitment to recycling soft plastic.
It’s as simple as separating any plastic packaging or wrapper that is scrunchable into a separate bag or bin in your kitchen. Soft plastics can be recycled through REDcycle, a waste proccessing facility that will turn your problematic single-use soft plastics into outdoor furniture and play equipment. Globally, single-use plastic packaging is out of control. It is having severe impacts on natural environments, national parks, wildlife reserves and particularly the ocean in harmful ways. Plastics are popping up in unexpected places, and affecting habitats all over the planet, seeping into our water (micro plastics) and even our food (being consumed by livestock). With the visible impacts this is having on other species and human health, it is time to address this waste stream at the source. As you continuously look to reduce your plastic waste intake, collect soft plastics and take them to a REDcycle drop off point (at most large supermarkets).
We encourage everyone to consistently avoid plastic packaging and bags wherever possible.
Action steps
1. Place a soft plastic bin (or hang a bag on a hook) where it is easily accessible, perhaps near your landfill bin
2. Pin up a list of soft plastic items near the bin (remember, if it scrunches, it can go in!) They will become familiar in no time
3. Rinse the scrunchable plastics and shake them dry before adding them to your soft plastics bin
4. Once your bin is full, take a photo of the bag, then drop it to your local supermarket for recycling at a dedicated soft plastics bin
5. Use the photo you took to try to monitor how much you can reduce your soft plastic waste each week, comparing each time the volume of plastic-packaged items
6. At the same time, each time you go to the store try to buy things in as little plastic as possible
7. And finally to avoid plastics, plan ahead by taking your own bags, containers, cups, cutlery and more! (We have a pre-prepard drawstring bag filled with these things so it is good to grab it on the go!)
