Soft plastics recycling collection points are returning to Woolworths stores more than three years after the Australia-wide REDcycle supermarket scheme collapsed.
Woolworths says more than 700 of its stores across five States will accept chip packets, lolly wrappers and similar packaging.
“With this initiative, we have made it easier for Aussie families to recycle their soft plastics as part of their weekly shop,” Woolworths says.
The supermarket giant started a trial of the new scheme in five Victorian Woolworths in February 2024, and several stores in South Australia were the latest to join this week.
Some of the plastic collected through the scheme is recycled and turned into in-store wall panelling and Woolworths-brand bread bags.
The privately run REDcycle scheme came to an abrupt halt in November 2022 after more than 12,000 tonnes of plastic were found to be hoarded in NSW, Victoria and South Australia across dozens of depots.
The retailers involved in REDcycle said they had no knowledge of what was really happening - that plastics which consumers had returned to supermarkets to be recycled were instead put into storage.
More than 500,000 tonnes of soft plastic packaging is used by manufacturers in packaging their products every year, with little of that recycled, according to industry figures.
Woolworths says its renewed recycling program has collected and processed about 40 million pieces of soft plastic, or 310,000kg, since 2024.
Woolworths is co-operating with recycling companies saveBOARD, iQRenew and Plascrete in the program.
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