{"id":64076,"date":"2022-11-09T07:50:47","date_gmt":"2022-11-09T12:50:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=64076"},"modified":"2022-11-09T07:50:47","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T12:50:47","slug":"coles-woolworths-recycling-scheme-collapses-after-secret-stockpiles-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=64076","title":{"rendered":"Coles, Woolworths recycling scheme collapses after secret stockpiles revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"_16lwx _2-5AL\">\n<div class=\"_2JwnJ\">\n<div class=\"JwYux\">\n<h3 data-testid=\"headline\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/national\/coles-woolworths-recycling-scheme-collapses-after-secret-stockpiles-revealed-20221107-p5bw9q.html\">Coles, Woolworths recycling scheme collapses after secret stockpiles revealed<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"_3OhA4\">\n<div class=\"_2h56q\">\n<div class=\"_3J1te\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"_1Rw6X\" data-testid=\"article-body-top\">\n<div class=\"_1ysFk\" data-testid=\"article-body\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"_1665V _2q-Vk\" data-testid=\"body-content\">\n<p>Australia\u2019s largest plastic bag recycling program has collapsed amid revelations hundreds of millions of bags and other soft plastic items dropped off by customers at Coles and Woolworths are being secretly stockpiled in warehouses and not recycled.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of being taken to companies that use the plastic to make other items, REDcycle has been transporting the plastic to warehouses for long-term storage in what some experts consider a potential environmental and fire safety risk.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"_3ujPS _3x3-4 RMwbY _2XZQH\" data-testid=\"image\">\n<div class=\"_1lwW_\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"enlarge image\"><picture class=\"\"><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.126%2C$multiply_0.9788%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/2078acd3aad8abf842ed12940a8eb3dafcb246a9, https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.126%2C$multiply_1.9577%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_62%2Cf_auto\/2078acd3aad8abf842ed12940a8eb3dafcb246a9 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 1024px)\" \/><source srcset=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.126%2C$multiply_1.0159%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/2078acd3aad8abf842ed12940a8eb3dafcb246a9, https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.126%2C$multiply_2.0317%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_62%2Cf_auto\/2078acd3aad8abf842ed12940a8eb3dafcb246a9 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 768px)\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.126%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/2078acd3aad8abf842ed12940a8eb3dafcb246a9\" srcset=\"https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.126%2C$multiply_0.7725%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_86%2Cf_auto\/2078acd3aad8abf842ed12940a8eb3dafcb246a9, https:\/\/static.ffx.io\/images\/$zoom_0.126%2C$multiply_1.545%2C$ratio_1.5%2C$width_756%2C$x_0%2C$y_0\/t_crop_custom\/q_62%2Cf_auto\/2078acd3aad8abf842ed12940a8eb3dafcb246a9 2x\" alt=\"Lucinda Moje-O\u2019Brien routinely recycles her plastic bags at REDcycle supermarket collection points.\" width=\"584\" height=\"390\" \/><\/picture><\/div><figcaption class=\"_3CZmy\"><span class=\"_2Li3P\">Lucinda Moje-O\u2019Brien routinely recycles her plastic bags at REDcycle supermarket collection points.<\/span><cite class=\"ojLwA\"><span class=\"_30ROC\">CREDIT:<\/span>JASON SOUTH<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Melbourne-based company, which claims to collect up to 5 million plastic items a day from public drop-off points at nearly 2000 supermarkets across the country, did not publicly announce the suspension of the recycling component of its program, and has for months continued collecting large volumes of soft plastics including shopping bags, pet food bags, ice cream wrappers, bubble wrap and frozen food packaging.<\/p>\n<p>The plastics collected are usually sent to other companies, where they are used as ingredients in concrete, asphalt, street furniture, bollards and shopping trolleys.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"_1665V _2q-Vk\" data-testid=\"body-content\">\n<p>On Tuesday evening, after questions from this masthead, REDcycle announced it would suspend its collection program from Wednesday due to \u201cuntenable pressure\u201d on its business model.<\/p>\n<p>Woolworths apologised to customers on Tuesday. Coles declined to comment about when it became aware REDcycle was collecting plastic from its supermarkets that were not being recycled.<\/p>\n<div class=\"_6ebFV noPrint\">\n<div class=\"_15gOL AkZ3C\"><iframe class=\"_16-Dw AkZ3C LntZY\" title=\"Embedded iFrame\" src=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/interactive\/modules\/graphic-embed\/?resizable=true&amp;v=81&amp;configUrl=https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/interactive\/hub\/configs\/graphic-embed\/11335.json\" height=\"157\" frameborder=\"0\" data-testid=\"embed-iframe\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A spokeswoman for REDcycle said \u201cseveral unforeseen challenges, exacerbated by the pandemic\u201d meant that three companies that normally accepted the plastic for recycling were no longer doing so.<\/p>\n<p>The processing problems are expected to continue until mid-2023, which could mean more than 1 billion plastic items \u2013 or thousands of tonnes \u2013 are stockpiled in warehouses. REDcycle would not reveal how much plastic is currently stockpiled in its facilities.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"_1FVfK\">\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coles, Woolworths recycling scheme collapses after secret stockpiles revealed Australia\u2019s largest plastic bag recycling program has collapsed amid revelations hundreds of millions of bags and other soft plastic items dropped off by customers at Coles and Woolworths are being secretly stockpiled in warehouses and not recycled. Instead of being taken to companies that use the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,33364,33366,33365,33251,671,33367],"class_list":["post-64076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","tag-australia","tag-chris-vedelago","tag-coles","tag-james-dowling","tag-plastic-recycling","tag-recycling","tag-woolworths"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64077,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64076\/revisions\/64077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}