Recycling of Soft Plastic

by Anne Wharton
I recently did some research on recycling of soft plastic via the bins placed at Coles Supermarkets. The plastic goes to Victoria to a company Replas where it is made into such things as decking, furniture, signage and traffic control products.  It is used particularly by local councils and schools. These products are good at withstanding Australia’s diverse climate and have been used all over Australia including SA.

Plastic is a scourge on our environment.  CSIRO recently conducted an 18 month marine debris survey around 35,000km of our beautiful coastline and found that there are over five pieces of rubbish for every person in Australia!  Cigarette butts, plastic bags and plastic bottles were among the common items found and a staggering 74% of rubbish was plastic (Australian Marine Conservation Society Newsletter – Spring 2013).

So please be encouraged to avoid packaging wherever you can, but if you do get soft plastic, recycle it in the Coles bins – it’s a great way of preventing plastic from damaging our precious environment.

If you can find a minute, here are 2 interesting links:
http://www.replas.com.au/recycling   (quick overview)
http://www.replas.com.au/news-media/news   (gives an overview of some of the uses of Replas products)

Plastic bottles and aluminium cans ready for recycling at Newton Recycling Centre