Shoppers notice Woolworths benches made out of customer donated recycled plastic shopping bags

Woolworths shoppers have noticed a unique feature sitting both inside and outside of some of its supermarkets.

While they look ordinary, the green benches outside the stores have been made from recycled shopping bags.

‘Take a seat and rest easy knowing this bench is made from recycled shopping bags,’ a sign on one of the benches reads.

The bench had been made by recycling network REDCycle using old shopping bags customers donated in soft plastics collection bins located in supermarkets.

However, due to an oversupply and stockpiling of plastics, REDCycle was forced to halt the collection program in November 2022, and was declared insolvent on Monday.

Woolworths shoppers have made spotted the benches outside the supermarkets are made from recycled plastic shopping bags

REDCycle teamed up with dozens of retailers across the country to collect soft plastics that would otherwise end up in landfill.

The plastics collected included the grey single-use shopping bags that were phased out in November 2021 as well as reusable green bags when they get old and worn, bread bags, biscuit wrap and frozen food bags.

Any plastic wrapper or container with a recycling symbol and ‘return to store’ label could be placed in the collection bins.

Bins were placed in supermarkets like Coles and Woolworths and shoppers embraced the initiative filling the bins with more than 5million plastic pieces each day.

‘Take a seat and rest easy knowing this bench is made from recycled shopping bags’ a sign on the bench read

The bench had been made by recycling network REDCycle using old shopping bags customers left in the in-store soft plastics collection bins so they didn’t end up in landfill

‘Once we started using REDCycle to recycle our soft plastics, our red-lid bin waste dropped significantly. So thankful for this program, it really made us notice how much single-use plastic we were using,’ one Aussie said on Reddit.

The items including were given a second life and transformed into street furniture, benches, bollards and other items that can be used in stores and car parks.

However, customers were disappointed to learn the initiative had ceased operations late last year and the plastics now have to be discarded in regular household waste collections.

REDCycle was experiencing challenges with manufacturers and receiving 350 times more plastics than it needed to make the items in demand.

It landed itself in hot water when it was found to be stockpiling tonnes of plastic putting an end to the recycling collection and forcing Coles and Woolworths to dispose of the 5,200 tonnes of recyclables destined for REDCycle into landfill.

On Monday, it was announced REDCycle is now insolvent and it was wound up by order of the NSW Supreme Court.

However, due to an oversupply and stockpiling of plastics, REDCycle was forced to halt the collection program in November 2022 and was declared insolvent on Monday

Coles and Woolworths are working together and have offered take control of and safely store the stockpiled plastics from REDCycle until a solution is found.

Brad Banducci, Woolworths Group chief executive officer said the supermarket giant was ‘disappointed’ to learn REDCycle hasn’t been recycling the soft plastics it collected but Woolies was ‘working to make it right’.

‘Coles and Woolworths have taken this step to provide reassurance to the public that the soft plastics they took the effort to deposit in REDcycle’s bins won’t be unnecessarily sent to landfill,’ he said.

‘We know this may take some time. We hope REDcycle will allow us to help get the best outcome for the environment, and restore community trust in our recycling systems.’

Matt Swindells, Coles Chief Operations and Sustainability Officer said the offer put to REDcycle is reflective of the commitment by both supermarkets to find the best environmental outcomes for the stockpiles and their customers.

‘Our aim is to continue to work with governments and industry to find workable solutions to soft plastic recycling in Australia so our customers can resume the good work they’ve done over the past decade, in sorting their soft plastic and knowing that it will be recycled,’ he said.

‘Collectively Coles and Woolworths have paid more than $20 million to REDcycle over the last decade to ensure this would happen, and we remain deeply disappointed by the unrecycled stockpiles.’

Statement from REDCycle: Why are there no plastic recycle bins at supermarkets anymore?

When REDCycle was launched, there was no guidebook or instructions on ‘how to create a recovery system for a challenging waste stream with a negative value’.

While its purpose was simple – reducing the amount of soft plastic packaging going to landfill – the execution was always going to be complex.

Some of Australia’s most-loved brands got on board. REDCycle was designed as a stewardship model where manufacturers, retailers and consumers shared responsibility in creating a sustainable future. The response from the Australian community was overwhelming, and their commitment to the cause was both humbling and motivating.

Like many things though, the pandemic came along and caused a significant strain for the REDCycle system. With online shopping booming, plastic wrapping and consumer participation soared with collection volumes increasing more than 350 per cent since 2019.

Australians began returning an eye watering 5 million pieces of soft plastic every day.

But we persevered, and partnered with several Australian processors and manufacturers to convert soft plastic into new products – street furniture, bins, shopping trolleys, bollards, concrete aggregate for construction and asphalt additives for roads.

Unforeseen challenges, exacerbated by the pandemic, soon meant that REDCycle’s recycling partners were unable to accept and process the rapidly increasing volume of soft plastics due to lack of immediate access to infrastructure, inadequate processing capacity, and most importantly reduced demand for recycled products.

There was no 350 per cent increase in demand for recycled products to match the supply, in fact, the opposite occurred thanks to market downturns. Then in June 2022, our largest volume offtake partner had a significant fire, resulting in their Tonerplas facility closing for reconstruction for 12 months.

This combination of factors put untenable pressure on the REDcycle business and system, and consequently, REDcycle regrettably announced the pause of the collection program in November 2022.

Since the program pause, we’ve had negotiations with governments, regulators, potential partners, leading manufacturers who all share our vision and recognise the power of the community movement and critical recovery pipeline REDcycle has created. We understand people’s disappointment and frustration. But we are uplifted and strengthened by the overwhelming support from community, industry, and partners.

Source: REDCycle

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