In the last year, I have developed a ‘thing’ about plastic. I was walking through a shopping mall once and thought to myself “everyone has at least one plastic bag which they use only to transport their goods home and then retire it to the bin”. That is a LOT of plastic bags going home from that mall. Not to mention all the other malls in all the cities in all the countries of the world. Then there are the food courts. We get our lunch in a plastic container inside a plastic bag, walk 3 metres to sit down, eat it and throw all that plastic in the bin. Plastic never goes away either. It will still be sitting in landfill LONG after us humans have extinguished ourselves on this planet. And soft plastics can’t be recycled in your yellow lid council bin like hard plastics. My new years resolution was to say "no" to plastic bags which I have achieved so far. I can juggle 25 grocery items and a cooked chook in my arms no worries. I have also recently been known to make the sushi lady just drop the roll straight into my hand to avoid using a container. Geez people must question my sanity sometimes. There is so much incidental soft plastic in our lives. The bag the bread comes in, the plastic around your bag of carrots, the wrapper to your cheddar cheese. It seems every asshole now gives you one of those “green” reusable bags that you never use again. We all have a stockpile of those. Enter REDcycle! Have you seen these outside your local supermarket? I have but always thought they were just for empty supermarket plastic bags. WRONG! You can recycle any soft plastic including:
This is an epiphany! So what is it used for? REDcycle are partnered with a company called REPLAS who turn the soft plastics onto:
I still believe that avoiding plastic altogether is best practice. Say no to plastic bags wherever possible. However, in a world where it is extremely difficult to buy any produce that isn’t already wrapped in soft plastic (crackers, rice, nappies etc), it is nice to know that there is an alternative to landfill or worse, the ocean. Plus, turning all of these smaller soft plastics into a large piece of furniture means that it doesn’t end up here: I'd like to see a turtle try to eat a bollard.
The best part is that these bins are located out the front of most Coles and Woolworths supermarkets. You go there anyway, take your soft plastics when you go. The turtle will thank you for it. I now have 4 bins in my kitchen/pantry. Waste, compost, conventional recycling, and soft plastics. I take the soft plastics to REDcycle when I go to the supermarket weekly. You can even recycle those "green" bags that asshole gave you. It seems crazy to have so many separate bins but you should see how much I have in my 'landfill waste' bin every week. It is half a (degradable) garbage bag INCLUDING my 3 year old's night nappies. To me that is worth it. Click here to find a REDcycle recycling bin near you. Is this an epiphany for you also or have you already been recycling your soft plastics?
4 Comments
Sarah
2/23/2017 02:52:48 am
Brilliant! Thankyou so much for that write up i never knew!!
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I never knew soft plastics could be recycled... Nor how much soft plastic I throw out each week! I'm pretty vigilant on re-using produce bags, never ever take supermarket plastic bags and have a great dislike for pre-packaged fruits/vegetables. And still I end up with so much. So happy to have found out about the green bins. Thank you!
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Elisha
5/16/2017 07:10:02 pm
Was just thinking of you after watching Craig Reucassel's War on Waste, where he tracked the bags that were put in these bins to landfill!!! The intent from the consumer is so positive and the supermarkets are so evil :(
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7/29/2017 01:48:47 pm
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