By Fatima Halloum and Matthew Sims
A Wyndham Vale business owner is encouraging other business owners to be mindful of their plastic use, in the wake of the collapse of recycling organisation REDcycle.
Alicia Gordon co-runs The Little Potion Co, and says she often used REDcycle as it seemed like the perfect solution for soft plastics.
“We’re trying to start from the ground level so we’re not having these plastic [items pile up],” she said.
“Sometimes we have to use single use plastics, but we try our best at home and in our business, like we use biodegradable cello bags, compostable shipping satchels, and we try and not use plastic packaging.
“That’s something that all businesses should be thinking about, how they can limit their plastic so there is less plastic being produced and going into the world.”
REDcycle temporarily paused its soft plastics collection program from Coles and Woolworths stores from November 9.
According to REDcycle, the group has worked with several Australian recycling partners to process soft plastic into new products, such as street furniture, bins, shopping trolleys, bollards, concrete aggregate for construction and asphalt additives for roads.
However, REDcycle has confirmed due to several unforeseen challenges and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, its recycling partners have been temporarily unable to accept and process soft plastics, leading to the decision for the soft plastics to be held in storage in the short term.
The Environment Protection Authority [EPA] Victoria discovered six warehouses, including a warehouse in Truganina, currently housing about 3000 tonnes of soft plastic as part of ongoing investigations into the REDcycle recycling scheme.
The EPA issued an information gathering notice to the operators of REDcycle, uncovering warehouses managed by logistics companies in Melbourne’s western and northern suburbs, with the soft plastics believed to have come from interstate.
EPA chief executive Lee Miezis said officers have took action to ensure fire risk mitigation is in place in all sites to reduce the possibility of harm to local communities and the businesses.
“We’ll continue to work hard, using our stronger regulatory powers, until we’re certain we’ve found every site in Victoria,” he said.
“We will not allow unacceptable risks to Victoria’s community or environment from pollution or waste.”
