Mackellar MP Sophie Scamps said the return of soft plastic recycling bins at some of our supermarkets is a positive step but that we shouldn’t get too excited. After the collapse of Redcycle in 2022, a new national trial has commenced to return soft plastic recycling to over 600 Woolworths stores in NSW.
“This might seem like a good thing, but here’s the deal,” said Dr Scamps. “Australia uses around 70 billion pieces of soft plastics each year. In 2021, 84% of that ended up in landfill and only 13% was recycled and CSIRO research shows that 75% of rubbish along our coastline is plastic, mostly from Australian sources.”
Dr Scamps said that recycling soft plastics carries a toxicity risk and sheds microplastics into the environment. In turn these microplastics and chemicals are finding their way into our bodies with one study revealing that human brains contain, on average, seven grams of microplastics, equivalent to the weight of a plastic spoon.
“Soft plastics are also hard to recycle,” said Dr Scamps. “And when they are it often results in low quality products. One of the key reasons that the Redcycle scheme failed was a lack of demand for the end products.”
Dr Scamps said that we should bring our soft plastics to the supermarket for the trial but recycling our ‘ever-increasing masses of soft plastic’ will not solve the problem.
“We need to cut down the use of plastic in the first place, and this should not just be left to individuals, it should be the remit of governments to legislate,” said Dr Scamps.
“Australia is home to some of the most beautiful coastline and marine environments and should therefore definitely be taking the lead,” she added.