Community meeting on soft plastics
Positive pathways for soft plastics: recent developments and opportunities for the Illawarra
This event brought together expert panelists who met with our local community, outlining some emerging opportunities for a Circular Economy for soft plastic packaging.
What was discussed:
Future regulation of single use plastics in NSW
Recycling of household soft plastics at Close the Loop
Results from kerbside collection trials by the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC)
Latest of a trial soft plastics collection in Wingecarribee Shire
Other local and national initiatives
Panelists included, amongst others:
Steve Morriss, Founder and Head of Circular Economy, Close the Loop Australia
Emma Wishart, Senior Policy Officer, Circular Economy Branch, EPA NSW
Alyssa Vilar, Waste Education Project and Policy Officer, Wingecarribee Shire Council
Helen Millicer, Consultant, National Plastics Recycling Scheme
Dr Tillmann Böhme of UOW
Date and time: Friday 10 May, 9.30 – 11.30 am
Venue: AIIM facility, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, Squires Way, North Wollongong
It was a great networking event, with lively discussion occurring with questions from the audience being answered by the panelists.
Read article in the Illawarra Flame here
View the short report from Kylie Flament on LinkedIn
Summary of Discussions
On Friday 10 May, Circular Plastics Illawarra hosted their first community meeting at the Innovation Campus, Wollongong. The enduring rain and an emergency evacuation didn’t impede the enthusiastic discussions on how we can bring a circular economy to the Illawarra.
Some of the panel. From left to right: Helen Lewis (Circular Plastics Ilawarra), Helen Millicer - On Screen (Consultant, National Plastics Recycling Scheme, Australia Food and Grocery Council), Steve Morriss (Close the Loop – CTL), Dr Tillmann Böhme (UoW), Emma Wishart (EPA Policy Team), Alyssa Vilar, (Off screen at right - Waste Education Project and Policy Officer, Wingecarribee Shire Council)
The panel and audience came together from local and state government agencies, private companies, experts in all areas of the recycling, reuse and sustainability sectors, and many concerned citizens.
Audience and Panel - Alyssa Vilar (Near side of panel table - Waste Education Project and Policy Officer, Wingecarribee Shire Council)
This event provided an opportunity for community members and organisations in the Illawarra to learn ways to reduce, reuse and repurpose soft plastics and how locally to support and benefit from a circular economy.
Steve Morriss, Founder and Head of Circular Economy, Close the Loop Australia, who plays a big part in processing and recycling soft plastics, including material collected through the previous REDcycle program. Morriss said their facility processes over one tonne per hour, four to five times the capacity of the previous line that succumbed to a fire in 2022. They have already processed 1,000 tonnes.
Morriss sees the circular economy as having three distinct areas: collection, technologies (how this problematic stream will be processed and into what) and end markets.
Morriss said, “Every area needs to be addressed.”
When we think of plastic, we often focus on food packaging. Morriss described soft plastics as a ‘mongrel mix’ because it consists of everything from soup packets to agricultural films and consists of different polymers, glues, foil and inks. He has even seen a whole roast chicken and metal tools for constructing flat packed furniture included in the mix.
Greeted by smiles from the audience, Morriss said, “These ‘mongrel mixes’ are near impossible to recycle back into food grade packaging but by using our recycled product called TonerPlas they create quality roads.”
In his view recycling plastic packaging to packaging through chemical recycling processes is still a long way off, whereas mechanical recycling at Close the Loop is already happening.
Morriss said, “There is a real opportunity here to create local jobs by recycling plastics into valuable products. The only thing in the way is ‘grumpy old engineers.’”
It’s about changing the lens. Another speaker on the panel, Associate Professor Tillmann Böehme, Faculty of Business and Law, University of Wollongong noted that Europe has Waste-to-Energy facilities as a last resort for plastics otherwise destined for landfill. While this is not ideal, it is better than ending up in landfill because at least the embodied energy is recovered. BlueScope Steel is investigating 1% substitution of coal with plastics for coke making in steel production. This research is still at an exploratory stage but could provide an additional end market to support recycling.
Böehme said “We need to work together as a collective and place pressure on local council to work together to see plastic as part of the solution.”
Emma Wishart, Senior Policy Officer, Circular Economy Branch, NSW EPA discussed the next iteration of their policy paper on potential regulation of hard to recycle single use plastics, such as chip packets and other tri-laminated packaging (three different layers).
Wishart said, “Our policy asked the questions “What is added to that plastic? Is it dangerous? Does it create harm to human health?”
After an emergency evacuation of the building and with the Illawarra escarpment in the background, the panel continued their presentations outside.
Discussions continuing outside, followed by networking during emergency evacuation of building
Alyssa Vilar, Waste Education Project and Policy Officer, Wingecarribee Shire Council said that 1.3 tonnes of plastic waste has been collected so far through their pilot soft plastics collection. The pilot began on 1 April and continues until June 2025.
The project was driven by residents running out of room to store their stockpiles at home. Council is collecting and baling material for collection by an organisation called RecycleSmart, who combine it with material collected in Sydney for transport to APR in Victoria for recycling.
Since the program commenced they have collected about 80 to 90 red bin sized bags to be baled. Vilar said, “Where there is habit, new learning comes and where there is the habit we see the community gets used to this. And we are seeing more and more plastic being collected.”
Vilar also shared a number of challenges including finding the necessary knowledge and contacts to make it happen and being able to deal with the volume of material coming in. High levels of contamination have been an issue and education is essential to address this. The cost of travel to a single collection point in Moss Vale was listed as a barrier, and they are looking to provide additional collection points in smaller communities.
Helen Millicer, Consultant, National Plastics Recycling Scheme, Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), said that over 300,000 tonnes of plastic go into the Australian market every year, and only 3 – 4,000 tonnes were collected each year through REDcycle.
“We need to make it as easy as possible for every household,” she said.
One way to do this is by adding it to kerbside collections. Millicer reported on kerbside collection trials being managed by AFGC.
Another approach is to charge companies on their use of plastic. The product stewardship scheme that the AFGC is developing will pay a levy on their use of plastics. This will help to fund collection and recycling and encourage less use of ‘virgin’ or hard-to-recycle plastics.
Carefully reducing our consumption, reusing products as much as possible, and then recycling plastics to make new products or roads, all form part of the solution. These strategies treat plastics as a valuable resource and encourage a more circular economy.
Circular Plastics Illawarra formed in response to community concerns about the lack of recycling opportunities for soft plastics after the REDcycle program collapsed in late 2022. To be part of community advocacy and action group of concerned citizens in the environmental/research field and encourage circular economy in the Illawarra join our mailing list at https://www.circularplasticsillawarra.org/join-our-community.