Despite the challenges faced by the soft plastics recycling industry, Council's kerbside soft plastics collection trial in Romsey and soft plastic drop off at transfer stations will be unaffected.
These services are not impacted by REDcycle's announcement to halt collection of soft plastics from Coles and Woolworths stores from Wednesday 9 of November 2022.
Plastic collected in the Romsey trial and from transfer stations is not processed by REDcycle. Instead, it is collected by two different plastic processors.
The soft plastic collected via the Romsey kerbside trial goes to our comingled processor APR, which has a soft plastic pyrolysis plant in Dandenong that will transform the collected plastic back into crude oil for reprocessing back to plastic.
The trial is being driven by the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC). Members of the AFGC will buy the material back for packaging, closing the loop.
The plastic taken to Council's transfer stations by residents will not be impacted either. This is collected by local Kyneton company, Victorian Regional Recyclers, and is taken to GT plastics in Geelong for mechanical reprocessing to pellets.
Council officers are investigating APR's capacity to take more material at their facility in Dandenong, as we are expecting to get an increase in material from residents at the transfer stations.
Following the current kerbside trial in Romsey officers will investigate the potential to roll out the soft plastic collection process across the whole shire.
