Year-long soft plastics recycling trial to reduce landfill waste approved

A 12-month trial of a soft plastics recycling program in Shellharbour would support diverting waste from landfill and instead turn it into a valuable resource.

Shellharbour City councillors have unanimously voted for the trial to assess the costs and benefits of soft plastics recycling.

Soft plastics include plastic bags, chip packets, bread bags, mail satchels and cling wrap.

It was proposed the trial could include one-off community collection events similar to household chemical clean out days four times per year, or dedicated collection points with ongoing collection at the Dunmore Recycling and Waste Disposal Depot and bulk haul to Victorian-owned APR Plastics – or a combination of both.

It would be run with logistics company RecycleSmart, which provides a collection transportation service for soft plastic recycling in the region.

Councillor Jacqui Graf said while she supported single day community collection events, she was concerned it would result in limited capture of waste if residents weren’t available on the dedicated days or didn’t want to queue up.

“Greater convenience would likely see greater participation, and therefore, I think that may be money better spent,” Cr Graf said of dedicated collection points.

“I think council needs to look at a mixture of elements from the two options.”

She said she would prefer to see collection points established in the first instance to ensure it was set up for success.

“I also wouldn’t rule out participation by local supermarkets as collection points for soft plastic waste, as they did with the REDcycle program,” she said.

“They’re a major source of plastic packaging, and they’ve got a social responsibility to reduce plastic waste.

“I do find they are open to participating in corporate responsibility initiatives that support their local community.”

She said she was pleased to see as part of the one-off events the option to consider how the Illawarra Shoalhaven Joint Organisation region and network could participate and collaborate in the collection, storing and transportation of soft plastics.

She said that would service a much wider area with the potential to offer value for money to the community with reduced costs.

“There’s some impressive examples out there of where councils are collaborating,” she said.

Cr Graf said one example was nine Victorian councils which banded together to send their waste to an advanced waste processing facility that sees at least 95 per cent less of their waste go into landfill, creates 455 permanent operating jobs and the waste being used to create a valuable energy resource due to embracing waste-to-energy technology.

She said strategic collaboration and partnerships, alongside making collection points easily accessible, would ensure the success of a trial and capture the most waste to maximise service delivery and reduce costs.

Cr Maree Duffy-Moon said a community-driven initiative via Sutherland Shire Council involved development of a free downloadable Recycle Smart app and service, providing specific and localised information on how to correctly dispose of more than 250 plastic recyclable waste items.

Cr Duffy-Moon said she would encourage incorporating that as part of an educational strategy for the trial.

According to the city’s most recent kerbside bin audit, soft plastics comprise about 7 per cent of Shellharbour resident’s red lidded bin content.

The trial will cost $25,000 per year, with no additional cost to ratepayers.