Woolworths Supermarkets Rolls Out Soft Plastic Recycling to 700 Stores
woolworths supermarkets has rolled soft plastic recycling back into 700 stores across five states. The revival started as a small trial in February 2024 and has now expanded beyond five Victorian stores, with selected South Australian locations joining this week.
40 million pieces of soft plastic have been collected since the trial began, Woolworths said, weighing about 310,000 kilograms. For shoppers, that means the return of a store-based drop-off path for items such as shopping bags, plastic wrap and product packaging after the program had previously been scrapped.
Rob McCartney on 700 stores
Rob McCartney, Woolworths 360 managing director, said, "We’re thrilled" "to be able to give shoppers the ability “to recycle these materials again”" and added, "Our customers have continued to advocate for soft plastic recycling". The quote signals that Woolworths is treating the relaunch as a response to customer pressure, not just an operational change inside its stores.
700 stores is a scale shift from the five-store Victorian trial that began in February 2024. The company said the rollout now covers five states, giving the program a much wider footprint as it rebuilds a recycling pathway that had been removed before the relaunch.
iQRenew and saveBOARD
14,000 tonnes per year is the new processing capacity Woolworths says iQRenew has opened in New South Wales, giving the program a place to send collected material. Woolworths said it is also working with saveBOARD, which turns soft plastic waste into building materials that the retailer is already using in 170 stores.
The collected plastics are being repurposed into wall panelling used within stores and into packaging products such as home-brand bread bags made with 30 per cent recycled content. Woolworths said, "We are proud to partner with innovative recyclers such as iQRenew," tying the rollout to a supply chain that has to handle material that can only be recycled once or twice before its quality deteriorates.
Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia
Major brands including Mars, Nestlé and McCormick Foods are involved through Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia, giving the program broader industry backing than a single-retailer initiative. For customers, the practical step is simple: soft plastics can again be returned through participating Woolworths stores rather than sitting in household waste.
The harder part is scale. If the 700-store rollout keeps feeding the new NSW processing line and the saveBOARD pathway, Woolworths has shown it can move from a five-store trial to a national collection system that turns store waste into materials already visible inside its own network.
