Cantabrians can now collect, drop and recycle soft plastics

Press Release

Cantabrians can now collect, drop and recycle their soft plastic packaging to make bins, bollards and benches.

10th June 2016

The Packaging Forum today launched the Love NZ soft plastic recycling programme at 50 PAK’nSAVE, New World, The Warehouse, Countdown stores across Christchurch; south to Ashburton and north to Rangiora. The Hon Nicky Wagner, MP Christchurch Central joined representatives from local government, industry and community groups at New World Ilam to be amongst the first to use the new Collect, Drop and Recycle service.

Lyn Mayes, Project Manager says:

“Following the successful roll out at 100 locations across Auckland and parts of Waikato, we are delighted that shoppers in Christchurch are now able to drop off their soft plastic bags and wrappers. Based on experience we expect Cantabrians to recycle around 75 tonnes of soft plastic packaging annually at the 50 stores once people have got used to the new system.

“The first audit has found that 63% of collected packaging is shopping bags, fruit and vegetable bags and 31% is grocery packaging primarily bread bags, toilet roll packaging and the soft plastic wrap around drinks packs. We encourage people to also recycle their frozen food bags, confectionery and biscuit wrap, chip bags, pasta and rice bags and courier envelopes.”

“Until today soft plastic packaging was destined for Canterbury landfills but it will now be made into new durable plastic products. For example, the new recycling bins at stores contain a 10% blend of soft plastic materials collected at North Island stores and processed as part of trials with Astron in Auckland. That’s around 90 plastic bags used in the production of each bin. REDcycle which manages operations has shipped the first container of plastics to Replas in Melbourne where the packaging is manufactured into bollards, traffic speed bumps, decking and tracking, furniture and a whole range of weather resistant plastic products suitable for construction, conservation, commercial and community groups.”

Steve Anderson, Managing Director Foodstuffs (NZ) Ltd told guests:

“In November last year I stood on a similar platform in Auckland to launch the programme on behalf of all the retail partners and less than nine months later I can report that shoppers in Auckland and Hamilton have diverted a remarkable 29 tonnes of packaging away from landfill and off to be recycled. The project demonstrates that if you provide people the opportunity to do the right thing, they won’t disappoint you. With a bit of Kiwi ingenuity and the support of the public, this project has turned a waste item into a feedstock for inventive reprocessors and manufacturers in New Zealand and Australia.”

Nicky Wagner, MP Christchurch Central presented a seat made from 15,000 plastic bags to students from local Villa Maria College, saying:

“New Zealanders throw away 4.3 million plastic bags and wrappers daily that means each of us disposes of one every day. We can now collect these bags at home, drop them at one of the 50 stores across our region where Wastebusters Ashburton will pick them up so they can be recycled into products such as this seat, the Love NZ recycling bin or the range of products on display. This project is one of many which is seed funded through the Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund and is a great example of industry taking the initiative to introduce new community recycling programmes.”

In addition to funding from The Packaging Forum and the participating retailers, the service is supported by Asaleo Care, Ceres, Cottonsoft, Farro Fresh, Frucor, Goodman Fielder, Kelloggs, Kimberly-Clark, Mars, Mondelez, Mother Earth, Nestle, NZ Post, Pams, Pure Delish, Simplot, Sunrice, Wrigley, Amcor, Astron, Elldex and Replas.

For Information

The Packaging Forum promotes the Love NZ brand under license from the Ministry for Environment. http://www.recycling.kiwi.nz/soft-plastics

© Scoop Media