Australia's leading food brands are collaborating in a new program to recycle soft plastics into furniture to reduce the amount of soft plastic packaging going into Canberra's landfill.
Coles customers in Canberra will be able to drop off soft plastic packaging from food and grocery items such as rice and pasta bags, bread bags, lolly packets and wrappers from biscuit packets, as well as their used plastic shopping bags.
The new recycling program is a collaboration between Coles, RED Group, key Australian food and grocery brands, and Replas, a manufacturing company that recycles plastics into furniture.
Bird’s Eye, McCain, Helga’s, Sunrice, Kellogg’s, Tip Top, Abbott’s
Village Bakery, Arnott’s and Cadbury are among those to have pledged
their support for the joint initiative, which will roll out in eight
Coles stores in Canberra.
The soft plastic packaging will be collected by the RED Group and sent to Melbourne to be recycled by Replas into outdoor furniture and a range of other useful products, which will be donated to schools and can also be purchased instead of buying plastic or timber products made from new materials.
The Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), Coles and the RED Group jointly launched the plastics recycling program this week.
“We already know our customers are keen to recycle their plastics and we hope the dedicated bins in our Canberra stores will make it easier for them,” said Coles regional manager Lionel Herbert.
AFGC CEO, Gary Dawson, said the initiative showed the manufacturing industry’s commitment to reducing waste.
“This is a great example of industry taking positive steps to not only reduce waste, but to recycle that waste into useful products,” he said.
“Food and grocery brand owners take the environmental impact of their packaging material seriously and so are pleased to support this product stewardship program. The good news is that recycling plastic not only reduces the amount of waste going to landfill, but it also reduces the need to use precious natural resources.”
