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One of Australia’s biggest recycling programs stockpiled millions of soft plastics in a a secret move that poses a potentially lethal fire risk.
REDcycle, which has donation bins in thousands of Coles and Woolworths stores across Australia, stopped its recycling operations several months ago but continued to collect soft plastics.
The recycling program claims to collect up to five million pieces of plastic everyday from supermarkets and other partners, including Australia Post.
REDcycle said it is storing the collected plastic in a warehouse and will continue to do so until its operations restart.
Soft plastic donation bins will disappear from Woolworths and Coles after its partner, REDcycle, ceased operations (pictured, a REDcycle bin in Coles)
‘REDcycle took the decision to hold material in the short term, at great personal expense to the organisation,’ it told Daily Mail Australia.
‘The REDcycle team has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to find other processing solutions and end markets. Potential new opportunities are being presented every day, however they will take time to operationalise.’
The eco-focused group stops soft plastic from ending up as landfill or litter by repurposing it through outsourced companies that can change the plastic to asphalt additives, concrete aggregate and furniture.
Last February the company lost its partner, Plastic Forests, which made garden planting kits from recycled materials.
But REDcycle’s real troubles began five months ago after a fire at Close the Loop, the factory in charge of its operation transforming plastic to an asphalt additive.
Close the Loop CEO Joe Foster said its operations will restart in about six months time.
To make matters worse, last week another of REDcycle’s partners stopped accepting plastic because it has an oversupply.
REDcycle collected 5million pieces of plastic everyday with bins in Coles, Woolworths and several other major retailers (pictured, a worker at Coles)
REDcycle said there are now no organisations operating in Australia that can recycle soft plastic.
Melbourne university student Lucinda Moje-O’Brien said she felt ‘betrayed’ because her donations to REDcycle weren’t being repurposed as promised.
‘As a consumer, I’m taking the time to separate my waste and they’re not holding up their end of the deal,’ she told the Sydney Morning Herald.
Coles said it was only ‘recently made aware’ of REDcycle’s ceased recycling operations and so has removed its donation bins.
‘Due to industry-wide challenges with soft plastic recycling, all REDcycle soft plastic collections from stores will be paused until further notice,’ a spokesman said.
‘This means we will be unable to accept soft plastic recycling returns in Coles stores and through Coles Online at this time.
‘Sustainability is as important to Coles as it is to our customers and partners.
‘We are committed to our Together to zero waste ambition and are working with government, industry and sustainability partners to find a long-term solution for soft plastics recycling in Australia.’
REDcycle reportedly didn’t tell Coles or Woolworths it has stopped recycling soft plastics and instead began storing the donations in a warehouse (pictured, a REDcycle bin in Woolworths)
Woolworths said it was also only ‘recently informed’ about the situation.
‘REDcycle advised it will no longer be able to collect the soft plastic returned by customers from our stores, effective immediately,’ a spokesperson said.
‘Regrettably, this means customers will not be able to recycle their household soft plastic at our stores until collections are able to recommence or an alternative solution can be found.
‘We are disappointed by this situation. We sincerely apologise to our customers and we’re working to return access to soft plastic recycling as soon as possible.’
Woolworths said it is now looking at working with other recycling companies.
REDcycle said on its website that it is struggling to keep up with the increasing number of soft plastic donations.
‘Consumer recycling of soft plastic has grown exponentially in recent years, with a 350% increase in plastic returned since 2019,’ it said.
‘For the short term, consumers are encouraged to put their soft plastics in their home rubbish bin.’
Many industry experts are worried REDcycle’s storage of soft plastics poses a toxic fire risk or means the waste will end up in landfill.
The storage of plastics collected at Coles and Woolworths (above) poses a potentially lethal fire risk
A fire at the Kilburn plastic factory (above) in 2020 posed the threat of causing cancer as well as thyroid and breathing problems in people and animals
Director of sustainability organisations the Boomerang Alliance and Total Environment Centre, Jeff Angel, said the struggles at REDcycle reflected the ‘shaky ground’ soft plastic operations stand on by running in a limited market.
‘There’s always a concern that bales and bales of plastic that are one day destined for recycling are at risk of catching fire or ending up in landfill,’ he said.
Between 2017 and 2020 several fires were reported at recycling facilities with large plastic storages in Australia.
The Kilburn plastic factory broke out in a massive fire in November, 2020, which caused widespread panic about serious health effects from the toxic fumes.
Residents in the region of the fire, which caused $1million worth of damage, were told to close their windows as toxins from the burning plastic are known to cause cancer as well as thyroid and breathing problems in people and animals.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted REDcycle for comment.
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