What is Soft-plastic Recycling?
- Bailee Ryan
- Jun 5, 2019
- 3 min read
What is 'soft plastic'?
Soft plastic refers to grocery bags, bread bags, bubble wrap, plastic wrappers of products such as biscuits, chips, anything you buy that has a soft plastic sheath. It CAN be recycled.
You must clean your bags and wrappers before recycling them and taking them to your nearest participating store which can be found here.
What can go in the soft plastic recycling bins?
Click this link to watch a video on what you CAN and CAN’T put in soft plastic recycling.
Products that you can currently recycle through soft plastic:
Polyethylene Carrier Bags
Bread, pasta & rice bags
Fresh produce bags and Netting citrus bags
Frozen food bags (frozen vegetable, fries, burgers, nuggets, poultry etc.)
Dairy wrappers
Plastic packaging around toilet paper, kitchen towels, nappies and sanitary products
Courier packs
Newspaper wrap
Chocolate & muesli bar wrappers
Biscuit packets (wrapper only, not the plastic tray - this does in your normal recycling bin)
Confectionery wrap; chip packets with light foil
Cereal box liners
Bubble wrap and large sheets of plastic that furniture comes wrapped in (cut into pieces the size of an A3 sheet of paper first)
"To have a sustainable circular economy where waste materials are re-processed into new valuable products, we need industry, councils and government departments to start buying products which are made from our recycling efforts."
Common confusions about what can be recycled
Silver-lined chip packets?
Yes, the thin foil-like plastic sleeves and packets that some biscuits, chocolate bars, crackers and chips come in are fine to be recycled – as a rule of thumb we accept plastic that scrunches up and doesn’t bounce back.
Any soft plastic that can't be recycled?
cling film
compostable bags
heavy foiled lined bags eg coffee bags
What do we do with it?
Two companies that deal with the soft plastic in New Zealand are Future Post and 2nd Life Plastics
Future Post are supplied with soft plastics from the recycling scheme which are blended with HDPE milk bottle plastic to create the plastic fence post. "Future Post New Zealand has developed a product that uses domestic and commercial plastic waste to make premium fencing products that perform better, for longer."
2nd Life Plastics produce the following products:
Dig Stop™ – underground cable cover, used widely by electricians and cable-layers
Tuff Buckets™ – buckets that last, in a range of sizes
Grip Step – provides a sure footing in wet areas, tough enough for cattle and horses
Ducting – for running cables underground; 55mm, 90mm and 110mm
Waterslides – for fun!
Custom plastic sheets – for your imagination and endless possibilities…
Long term solution - be apart of the solution not the pollution
Obviously it is ideal to avoid using plastic as much as possible.
Examples:
Purchasing your fruit, vege and bakery items in mesh bags or brown paper bags which can be composted.
Shopping for dried good at bulk food stores and bringing your own containers
Bringing your own containers for Deli foods at New World (YES they now accept this)
Using a reusable coffee cup or asking specifically for no straws.
Check out out blog post here on how to shop sustainably on a budget.
The soft plastic recycling scheme should be a last resort to deal with packaging we can't avoid such as that surrounding toilet paper. It's easy to feel as though we are doing our bit for the environment just because we "soft plastic recycle" but this is a short lived environmental victory if you proceed to leave the supermarket with a trolley filled with more plastic. The scheme was stopped over the summer period because there was more plastic than could be processed, this 400 tonnes of plastic had to be put in storage costing our government money. Thus, moving towards zero waste is the ultimate solution over recycling materials as this takes time and money.
If everyone does there bit to reduce their waste we can make our society more sustainable because "we won't have a society if we destroy the environment."
It's up to you to act now to save our planet for your children, grandkids and great grandkids, so will you?
Reference and for more information visit:
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