Diverting soft plastics from landfill

A pilot program launched earlier this year is helping thousands of Ballarat residents reduce their contribution to landfill by allowing them to recycle their ‘scrunchable’ soft plastics.

Bright orange plastic bags are becoming a kitchen staple in thousands of households across Ballarat.

If you don’t already have some in your kitchen or lining one of your household bins, you may have seen the orange bags — stuffed full to bursting — in the recycling bins of your neighbours.

The orange bags form part of a 12-month pilot program, which is allowing 10,000 households across the City of Ballarat to recycle their ‘scrunchable’ soft plastics in the orange bags and then placed in their yellow-lid recycling bin.

The City of Ballarat is delivering the pilot program in partnership with the Australian Food and Grocery Counci (AFGC) with the support of many Australian brands and companies.

The soft plastics that residents recycle will be included in a circular solution to turn them back into quality products or packaging, as part of plans to develop a long-term circular system for soft plastic packaging waste.

City of Ballarat Coordinator Circular Economy Siobhan Dent says the uptake of the pilot program across Ballarat has been heartening.

“We have seen almost 5,000 households register for the pilot program.” she says.

“This is ahead of other councils participating in the pilot program, which is really pleasing to see.” 

With just over 5,000 places left on the pilot program, it's not too late!  

Fill out the form to register your interest to participate in Ballarat Soft Plastics Collection Pilot Program

Scrunchable soft plastic packaging that easily folds in your hand

• Empty and dry big bags from pet food and mulch
• Bags for food such as chips, bread, cereal and sweets
• Film wrapping like bubble and cling wrap  
• Soft plastics that have any of these numbers – 2, 4 and 5

TIP: Look for the old REDcycle logo on the label and/or the Australian Recycling Label (ARL) “Return To Store” or “In-store Drop-off” logo. These items can be included in your bag.

Note: This pilot is not connected to REDCycle. 

Any rigid containers, such as bottles, cans, takeaway containers

• Remove all small parts – no lids, bread tags, desiccant sachets, straws or balloons  
• No compostable or degradable plastics or products with the labels 1, 3, 6 or 7  
• No dirty or wet plastics and no food residue.

TIP: Your soft plastics collection bag is going to Australian manufacturers to make high quality products, so please ensure they only get clean and dry soft plastic.