Big or little, coloured or clear, mesh or smooth - soft plastic bags, wrappers and packets do not belong in your (yellow lid) mixed recycling bin.
Our recent bin inspection program found 1 in 3 mixed recycling bins contained soft plastics, making it the highest source of kerbside bin contamination across the Shire.
When soft plastics go in your mixed recycling bin, they can wrap around sorting equipment and cause breakdowns at the Material Recycling Facility. Soft plastics can also reduce the quality of other recyclable materials collected in your bin. This increases processing costs and can can result in contamination penalties being added to processing costs.
What are soft plastics?
Soft plastics are lightweight and flexible. If you can scrunch it in your hand, it's likely a soft plastic
Common examples include:
- Plastic shopping bags and bread bags
- Fresh produce bags
- Bubble wrap and cling wrap
- Chip packets and biscuit wrappers
- Pasta, rice and confectionery packaging
- Cereal box liners
- Mesh onion and produce bags
Many of these items are made from multiple layers of different materials, which makes them difficult to recycle through standard facilities
Soft plastics (unless accepted through a specialised program) should go in your general rubbish bin.
Local recycling options
While Council does not currently offer a broad kerbside soft plastic recycling service, there are a few local drop-off options for some specific items.
Pet food bags and pouches
Petstock has partnered with Royal Canin and TerraCycle to collect and recycle dry pet food bags and wet food pouches into reusable plastic pellets.
Empty and clean bags can be taken to:
- Petstock Kilmore - 125 Northern Highway, Kilmore
- Petstock Seymour - 65-71 Emily Street, Seymour
Agricultural bags - bagMUSTER program
We've partnered with bagMUSTER to recycle single-use woven polypropylene bags used for fertilisers, seeds, grain, stock feed and pet food.
Empty and clean bags can be dropped off at:
- Wallan Resource Recovery Centre - Lot 13 Freeway Drive, Wallan
- Seymour Resource Recovery Centre - 470 Seymour-Tooborac Road, Hilldene
What happens to soft plastics when recycled?
When collected through dedicated programs, soft plastics are:
- Collected and baled
- Sorted and cleaned
- Shredded into flakes
- Melted and turned into pellets
- Used to manufacture new products
Recycled soft plastics can be used in road construction, concrete replacement materials, outdoor furniture and other composite plastic products
