Well done, #Omo, for replacing your old plastic washing powder scoop with a cardboard scoop! ♻️ #reduce #reuse #redcycle

No, in fairly certain that the key failing of the #REDcycle program is that trying to recycle soft plastic is completely uneconomical and, therefore, they just stored it all in warehouses. Sure, they produced the odd park bench as a PR stunt, but that's all they could ever have been.

If they truly only collected one or two percent of soft plastics, and they utterly failed to manage to handle that, then, no, collecting more would definitely not be the solution. Whoever this Tanya
Barden person is, she's either lying to save face, or naive as hell.

Because virgin plastic is a waste product of fossil fuel production, it will always be cheap. As long as crude oil and other such things continue to be refined into fossil fuels, recycling plastic is just not a viable option in 98% of situations.

#auspol

How can a company like #RedCycle manage to hide 44 warehouses filled with waste from government inspectors? Or did RedCycle pay someone to avoid inspections? How is this not a story about massive corruption in and/or utter failure of Australian regulatory agencies?
If you can have Centrelink running illegal robodebt collection for years, I don't see how a company can hide that they've acquired 44 additional warehouses and are shipping tonnes of waste there unless they're paying someone off. #AusPol
https://amp.9news.com.au/article/ebcf4029-b61d-4dad-adc9-cea3d4e56ac7

The soft plastics issue in Oz is a fucking crisis! WhatDoYouMean on YT breaks down the glorious clusterfuck that is the REDcycle's failed "because of its overwhelming success" soft plastic recycling business plan.

#REDcycle #SoftPlastics #Recycling

https://youtu.be/lpDlwiF7v3Q

Lol, oops. #RedCycle

soooo it's been quite a while now since the #RedCycle program was paused, and while it was problematic in the first place (https://www.abc.net.au/education/war-on-waste-what-happens-to-plastic-packaging/13723580), does anybody know if we're any closer to a new soft plastics recycling program in Australia?

Or, even better, any closer to getting as many soft plastics as possible out of the retail landscape?

#RedCycle #SoftPlastics #Australia

This is such an unmitigated disaster !! Clearly the partnership between the large supermarket chains, #Coles & #Woolworths, and #Redcycle was quite pathetic & poorly implemented. #softPlastics

https://www.smh.com.au/national/coles-woolworths-ordered-to-dump-tonnes-of-redcycle-soft-plastics-in-landfill-20230131-p5cgok.html?instance=2023-02-03-14-51-AEDT&jobid=29514368&list_name=10093_smh_breakingnews&mbnr=MjAxODMxMjg&promote_channel=edmail&utm_campaign=breaking-news-smh&utm_content=STORY&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=2023-02-03

The implosion of #RedCycle has really made me hyper-aware of how much waste the household is putting out. I know that #Recycling has been in crisis for a few years since China stopped accepting a lot of our plastics, and my local council stopped accepting glass at the curbside, but REDCycle really brought it home.

Our household has multiple #spoonies (people with disability and limited capacity to cook etc) so we use quite a lot of convenience foods. As my #MentalHealth is getting better (vs where I was a year or two ago) I’m slowly trying to shift things more toward homemade, unpackaged, buying in bulk, minimally processed foods, etc.

We’re never going to be #PlasticFree for so many reasons, but I’d like to hope we could halve our #PlasticWaste, or better.

I’m/we’re already:

- drinking kombucha, iced tea, home-made cordials and/or soda stream soda water instead of buying bottled drinks
- saving jars and bottles for #preserving,, then using them for condiments, jams, pickles, and canned fruit and veg to save buying them
- #baking bread, crackers and sweet treats (when we can)
- buying dry goods in bulk, using our own containers where possible
- getting meat from our CSA, wrapped in paper and/or #compostable vacpacks
- getting fruit and veg from the garden, foraged, or unpackaged where possible (we still get some canned and frozen)
- making stock, soups, stews, and other meals to freeze for later convenience
- #composting food waste and paper

#sustainability

Oz. Somewhere over the Rainbow. #recycle #reuse #reduce #repurpose #redcycle #auspol2023 #environment #waste #carbon #GlobalWarming #satire #wizardofoz #Oz #Coke #fastfood #packaging

Respect to Allen’s for using paper bags instead of plastic on Jaffas, but I still haven’t quite forgiven #Nestle for the whole water thing.

Still, recognition where it’s due: paper packaging is better. Once #RedCycle stopped I really saw how much non-recyclable plastic packaging is used. #Woolworths & #Coles clearly aren’t buying back the RedCycle plastic for use on their “fresh food”, so local grocers it is. #Smiths #Cadbury etc products are easy to give up until they change their packaging.

Respect to Allen’s for using paper bags instead of plastic on Jaffas, but I still haven’t quite forgiven #Nestle for the whole water thing.

Still, recognition where it’s due: paper packaging is a better. Once #RedCycle stopped I really saw how much non-recyclable plastic packaging is used. #Woolworths & #Coles clearly aren’t buying back the RedCycle plastic for use on their “fresh food”, so local grocers it is. #Smiths #Cadbury etc products are easy to give up until they change their packaging.

Good news for anyone still wanting to #recycle soft-plastics in the Hornsby/Ku Ring Gai area; the Council depot at Thornleigh is still collecting soft-plastics, they are part of a different program with a different factory partner; they’re not aligned with the failed #RedCycle program or its currently inoperable factory. And yes, we all know we should reduce plastic use, but sometimes it creeps in. #plastic

So uh, what are we doing with soft plastics lately? We're all just hoarding them yeah? I've just thrown my third tightly-packed bag of bags into the shed... #Australia #RedCycle #ItsAllBroken

Australia’s Soft Plastic Recycling Debacle https://hackaday.com/2022/12/15/australias-soft-plastic-recycling-debacle/ #CurrentEvents #greenhacks #recycling #Featured #redcycle #recycle #waste

Australia’s Soft Plastic Recycling Debacle - We’ve all been told to cut back on waste to help prevent environmental crisis on E... - https://hackaday.com/2022/12/15/australias-soft-plastic-recycling-debacle/ #currentevents #greenhacks #recycling #featured #redcycle #recycle #waste

#Coles, #Woolworths and #ALDI join taskforce to find soft plastics solution after #REDcycle collapse
#SBSNews
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/coles-woolworths-and-aldi-join-taskforce-to-find-soft-plastics-solution-after-redcycle-collapse/o17zyt9jr

It is disappointing to know the #REDcycle program stopped. Now people don’t have an alternative option for where to put these red cycle labeled plastic bags.

Email from Coles “Due to industry-wide challenges with soft plastics recycling, including that supply of soft packaging now far exceeds current processing capacity in Australia, #REDcycle has advised that all REDcycle soft plastic collections will pause from today until further notice. This change impacts over 200 FMCG and retail REDcycle partners.

This means Coles, like other REDcycle partners, will no longer be able to accept soft plastics recycling in our stores until an alternative arrangement can be put in place.”

It is disappointing to know the #REDcycle program stopped. Now people don’t have an alternative option for where to put these red cycle labeled plastic bags.

Email from Coles “Due to industry-wide challenges with soft plastics recycling, including that supply of soft packaging now far exceeds current processing capacity in Australia, #REDcycle has advised that all REDcycle soft plastic collections will pause from today until further notice. This change impacts over 200 FMCG and retail REDcycle partners.

This means Coles, like other REDcycle partners, will no longer be able to accept soft plastics recycling in our stores until an alternative arrangement can be put in place.”

@sgoilear @terrorforma

I've found neatly flattening and then folding my soft plastic drastically reduces its volume and our 3 person household has produced ~5L in 3 months? A good option if you don't want to buy vac bags

(Of course YMMV)
#recycling #RedCycle #plastic #SoftPlastic

Yesterday The Age ran this story about the #REDcycle soft plastic recycling program no longer taking new waste due to a backlog built up after two of their stakeholders closing down over COVID: https://www.smh.com.au/national/coles-woolworths-recycling-scheme-collapses-after-secret-stockpiles-revealed-20221107-p5bw9q.html

There is a shorter piece on it from ABC News today (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-09/redcycle-soft-plastics-recycling-program-suspended/101632220), but I recommend the Melbourne-based The Age's coverage of the Melbourne-based company.

When REDcycle started up, I was excited as #plastic #recycling is a huge and growing #sustainability problem. The Atlantic summarised why it doesn't really work economically: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/single-use-plastic-chemical-recycling-disposal/661141/

We are really stuck with the reduce part of #ReduceReuseRecycle and I'd like to see more options around recycled paper fibre packaging. Even when not recycled, the decomposition is much faster and probably less toxic.