Woolworths Restarts Soft Plastic Recycling in 700 Stores
Woolworths has brought soft plastic recycling back to 700 stores across five states, restoring a service customers had pushed for after it was scrapped years earlier. woolworths said the rollout reached selected stores in South Australia this week, widening access to a program that began as a five-store trial in Victoria in February 2024.
Rob McCartney on 700 stores
“We’re thrilled” to be able “to give shoppers the ability to recycle these materials again,” Rob McCartney, Woolworths 360 Managing Director, said as the supermarket expanded the program. “Our customers have continued to advocate for soft plastic recycling,” he added, putting the return in the context of sustained pressure from shoppers rather than a routine packaging update.
40 million pieces of soft plastic have already been recycled since the trial began, Woolworths said, amounting to roughly 310,000 kilograms. The company is now moving that material into products it can use again, including wall panelling inside stores and some home-brand bread bags made with 30 per cent recycled content.
iQRenew, saveBOARD and store use
14,000 tonnes per year is the processing capacity Woolworths pointed to at iQRenew’s new NSW facility, a sign that the return of the program is being tied to actual sorting and processing volume rather than a symbolic collection point. saveBOARD is also turning soft plastic waste into building materials, and Woolworths said it is already using those materials in 170 stores.
February 2024 was the starting point for the revived trial, when Woolworths tested the service across five Victorian stores before expanding it nationwide this week. The scale matters because soft plastics can only be recycled once or twice before their quality deteriorates, so the program’s value now rests on how much material can be gathered and redirected into lower-grade uses such as building products and packaging. For shoppers, the practical change is simple: the collection point is back in far more stores, and the material is already being pulled into products on shelves and fittings inside the chain’s own stores.
