A new trial could soon make it easier for Australians to recycle soft plastics in their yellow-lid recycling bins. The National Plastics Recycling Scheme (NPRS) was trialled in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales with 7000 households participating in the trial. The results of the trial were positive, with the households placing soft plastics in orange bags inside their yellow-lid recycling bins.
The scheme is part of a proposed overhaul of how recycling bins are used. It would make it easier for people to recycle soft plastics, such as chip bags, bread bags, and cling wrap, which are not usually accepted in the yellow-lid recycling bin. Under the scheme, households would place their soft plastics in the orange bag and place it inside their yellow-lid bin. The bags would then be collected with the rest of the recyclables and taken to a sorting facility.
The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) conducted a trial run, and the findings showed that those who had not previously used the discontinued REDCycle drop-off scheme for collecting soft plastics outside supermarkets had started to recycle them through their yellow bins.
More than 1000 households taking part in the trial found that the yellow bin was favored for recycling over all other options, with only 60 per cent of respondents using the REDCycle program. The AFGC chief executive Tanya Barden saw the program as a long-term alternative to the store-return scheme, which she found could not be the solution for large-scale soft plastics recycling.
