Soft Plastics Recycling

The Hon. H.M. GIROLAMO (16:43): I move:

1. That a select committee of the Legislative Council be established to inquire into and report on the recycling of soft plastics and other recyclable material in South Australia, with particular reference to:

(a) how South Australia has responded to REDcycle being unable to process soft plastics;

(b) investigating how supermarkets and other collection points have ceased collections and what can be done to re-establish these services;

(c) determining whether funding from the state government (including Green Industries SA funding) has been sufficient to support South Australian businesses and local government councils within the soft plastics and other recyclables industry;

(d) identifying short and long-term opportunities and solutions to ensure soft plastics can be recycled in South Australia;

(e) examining strategies more broadly to reduce soft plastic waste generation and better management of commercial and residential waste; and

(f) any other related matters.

2. That this council permits the select committee to authorise the disclosure or publication, as it sees fit, of any evidence or documents presented to the committee prior to such evidence being presented to the council.

As this chamber would be well aware, Australia used to have a soft plastic recycling scheme known as REDcycle. You would collect your soft plastics and packaging from home—usually from products bought from the supermarket—and return them back to the supermarket.

Not many Australians gave it a second thought about what the next step was and what happened after the collection of soft plastics occurred. Furthermore, this chamber would be aware that Australia no longer has a program like this, and it is a tragedy. The collapse of REDcycle in November last year is still reverberating across the recycling and waste industry today. More than six months after they collapsed and three months after being declared insolvent, they found that there was stockpiling of collected soft plastics around the country and they were unable to pay for the storage fees. There was no answer to be had. Most Australian packaging that had a logo on it was going to REDcycle, indicating that it could be returned to the store and be processed and taken care of.

This stockpiling of soft plastic waste in warehouses around the country was raised as a huge risk by the Environment Protection Authority. In an update on the website in late February this year, REDCycle partially blamed the COVID-19 and subsequent mass increase in online shopping, with its extra plastic packaging, and that led to the increase of more than 350 per cent from its figures in 2019. At the height they said they were collecting five million pieces of soft plastic every day.

Then the straw that broke the camel's back of this system was a fire at the largest take-off partner. In November 2022, the decade-old and largest soft plastic recycling program in Australia was paused with immediate effect. It has not returned and that is where we find ourselves today. As the pandemic dragged on the economy flattened the market and the need for recycling plastic went the other way and diminished. It certainly did not increase by 350 per cent. The input was becoming too great for the output. It was an excessive supply and a market problem.

Following the collapse of REDCycle, the major supermarket retailers—Aldi, Woolworths and Coles—created a soft plastics task force. This task force, with the authorisation of the ACCC, have 12 months to collaborate and manage a short-term solution to the soft plastic stockpile, and to facilitate a resumption of in-store collection for recycling. That 12-month clock began to tick in March this year. They have also released a road map to restart with core objectives of resuming access to soft plastic recycling throughout Australian supermarkets, restoring public confidence in soft plastic recycling, and maximising the recovery of soft plastics.

Recycling in Australia is a system built on good collection, sorting, vigorous infrastructure to process and remake, and strong end-markets for recycled material and products. Recycling must be economically viable and sustainable for long-term solutions. According to the statistics released by the federal government in 2021—the National Plastics Plan—Australians used 3.5 million tonnes of plastic in 2018 and 2019, with around 60 per cent imported.

Another statistic out of the National Plastics Plan in that report is that 70 billion pieces of soft scrunchable plastic, such as soft plastic bags and food wrappers, gets used annually. That equates to roughly 2,700 soft plastic items per person. In fact, according to data from the Minderoo Foundation, per head of population, we consume more plastics than any other nation—almost 60 kilos a year. That is right: more than any other nation. That is several kilograms ahead of the US and almost four times the global average.

The focus has been on processing soft plastics, not on post-sale of recycled plastics. An economic lens needs to be added to this process. What to do with the recycled content is not a post-REDCycle problem, and governments across the country have been attempting to fix this issue prior to its collapse, partially spurred on by the announcement that China would not import the world's rubbish anymore from 2017.

Both the former state and federal governments contributed to $45 million of recycling modernisation funds, where state, federal and local businesses were able to match the funding to further enhance South Australia's reputation as a nation leader in waste management. The Liberal Party has much to be proud of from its time in government to protect and conserve our environment. As with the Labor governments, both state and federal, I hope to see a bipartisan approach to finding an ongoing viable solution. I think one of the biggest improvers for the environment was the work done within single-use plastics, and whilst substantially delayed, we are pleased that the current government is still working to continue this and any further bans would seek to improve the situation in South Australia.

Governments can take a strong lead in conserving our environment. We are all aware of the strong leadership South Australia has had with the container deposit recycling scheme. This year that scheme will be harmonising across the country, with Victoria and Tasmania getting on the scheme some 40 years after South Australia led the way.

We know that some councils or regions and some groups are trying to tackle the soft plastic problem on their own but separate groups would not have the same impact as a statewide recycling system. Here in Adelaide there is a 12-month trial of soft plastic collection with the partnership of Green Industries SA and the National Plastics Recycling Scheme, a project led by the Australian Food and Grocery Council. This trial is underway in the Adelaide City Council, the City of Charles Sturt and the City of Port Adelaide Enfield.

One of the key elements of what this select committee would hope to achieve in this motion is to be able to identify long and short-term opportunities and solutions to ensure that soft plastics can be recycled in South Australia. I have consulted with a number of key players in the ecosystem, including YCA Recycling at Wingfield, a major industrial recycler resource company from right here in Adelaide and a global player in this important industry.

In talking to experts, it is apparent that when considering a recycling system such as this it is important to think of the end product and ask the question: what could be recycled, and, importantly, the economic benefit. The collecting, the sorting and even the recycling can come later. If there is no market for the end product, which we saw with the demise of REDcycle in the first place, one could argue that there is not a strong enough system to be able to recycle in the first place.

That is where we find ourselves today: a parliament without all the answers but with the strong tools to understand and possibly find a pathway forward so that those in the community who seek to do good by their environment can do so in an efficient and successful way. This is not an issue that can be exported: out of sight, out of mind. We must tackle it. It has been proven before. As a parliament, let's seek to understand the barriers and work together to ensure that recycling of soft plastics can continue. I commend the motion to the council.

Debate adjourned on motion of Hon. I.K. Hunter.