Pile-up alarm over war on soft plastic
RECORD numbers of Tasmanians are joining the war on waste, with soft plastic for recycling piling up at supermarkets where disposal rates have spiked massively.
More disposal bins are being rolled out at major supermarkets across the state.
This has prompted a warning from Replas, the country’s biggest re-manufacturer of soft plastic, that demand for recycled products must grow to avoid a “dirty great stockpile”.
Coles regional manager Tasmania Steven Netherclift said the amount of soft plastic deposited by shoppers at its Tasmanian stores had spiked from 20kg to about 200kg a week since the middle of last year. He said more bins were being rolled out at its stores.
Recent media exposure and interest in waste has seen an increase in packaging used for bread, biscuits, frozen food, vegetables, pasta, rice, cereal, bubble and cling wrap and plastic bags being dumped in supermarket REDcycle bins.
Outgoing piles of plastic have grown noticeably at some supermarkets.
“The current weekly volume in Tasmania equates to approximately 55,000 units of plastic being diverted from landfill every week,’’ Mr Netherclift said.
Red Group director Elizabeth Kasell said interest in soft plastic recycling had spiked and spread statewide after the program was launched in seven Hobart Coles stores.
REDcycle has 630 supermarket drop-off points nationwide, mostly in Coles outlets, and has recently expanded in Tasmania.
Replas sales and marketing state manager Matthew Philpott said while it was pleasing that growing numbers of Tas- manians were becoming proactive about recycling, the big challenge was to now expand the product market.
Soft plastic sourced from supermarket deposit sites across Australia is mixed with other rigid plastic to manufacture products such as bollards, benches, furniture, decking, fencing, signage and exercise equipment.
“We have got to have a take-up of the product that we make to make it worthwhile,’’ Mr Philpott said.
“Society actually needs to take up the product ... to help solve the problem.
“It needs to be done in a fairly significant way.
“At the end of the day, we need to return a dollar on it or we can’t progress.”
Replas invested in research and development to grow its product range and the industry.
Mr Philpott said about 80 per cent of its re-manufactured product was bought by councils, 6 per cent by schools, and the rest by the private-sector and individual customers.