City of Ballarat Council says more than 2,700 households are diverting ‘scrunchable’ soft plastics from landfill and recycling them, following the recent launch of a new kerbside collection pilot program.
The 12-month kerbside soft plastics pilot enables residents to recycle their soft plastics in a Council-supplied orange bag that can now be placed in residents’ yellow-lid recycling bin.
The Council says the soft plastics that residents recycle will be included in a circular solution to turn them back into quality products or packaging, as part of plans to develop a long-term circular system for soft plastic packaging waste. The orange collection bags are made in Australia from 100% recycled plastic.
Mayor, Des Hudson has registered for the pilot program and says he is now recycling all of his household’s soft plastics.
“It is fantastic to once again be able to recycle soft plastics, which frees up space in my general waste bin,” he said.
“The trial is limited to 10,000 households so I encourage anyone who wants to recycle their soft plastics, and hasn’t yet registered, to do so.
“Recycling soft plastics allows them to be sorted, processed and ultimately transformed back into other products, keeps them out of landfill and gives them a new life.”
Scrunchable soft plastics include bread and cereal bags, frozen vegetable packets, lolly wrappers, bubble and cling wrap as well as plastic toilet paper wrap. Residents can also look for the former REDCycle logo or the Australian Recycling Label ‘Return to Store’ or ‘In-store Drop-off’ logo.
The Council pilot program is being run in partnership with the Australian Food and Grocery Council.
