Shoppers are being called out after dumping soft plastics in supermarkets
- Replies 20
Every one of us here has probably experienced something similar in the past; you're at the supermarket, you've finished your shopping, and you realise you have a bunch of soft plastics that need to be recycled.
If you're lucky enough to live near a store with a recycling station, great! You can just drop your plastics in there and be done with it. But what do you do when the recycling station is out of order or unavailable?
Unfortunately, some shoppers seem to think the answer is 'dump it anyway', which is exactly what Woolworths employees say has been happening in stores across Australia.
In an unofficial Facebook group for Woolies workers, footage has emerged of soft plastics left abandoned by customers in the section of a store previously occupied by a recycling station.
The signs clearly state that the supermarket's recycling program is currently unavailable due to network disruptions, but that didn't stop shoppers from dumping their plastics anyway.
The footage prompted employees of the company to fire back at shoppers for intentionally doing the wrong thing and making their job harder.
'A customer read the sign, looked me in the eyes and still placed the plastic bags down before walking off,' wrote one commenter. Another staff member said dumping was such a common problem at her store that she sees it every day. 'My Everyday!' she wrote.
Another Woolworths employee talked about how customers don't pay attention to any signs. He said, 'Rule 1 - customers cannot and will not read signs, no matter how many you erect or how large they are.'
Recently, it came to light that recyclables left at Woolworths and Coles had not been recycled for months, which sparked the current recycling controversy.
Instead of being processed for recycling, the shopping bags, food wrappers, and bubble wraps that were collected as part of the REDcycle program at supermarkets have been sent to long-term warehouses - sitting unused and collecting dust.
On November 9, Woolworths confirmed that the REDcycle program was 'temporarily' shut down across the country, explaining that there had been problems with the provider's network, which caused soft plastic that hadn't been recycled to pile up.
Woolworths stores no longer feature REDcycle bins, and notices alerting customers of the change have been posted at service desks and in the areas where the bins had previously stood in stores across the nation.
Ever since the recycling program was put on hold, many customers have been wondering when it will resume.
On Friday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said that it had given conditional interim approval for Woolworths, Coles, and ALDI to form a Soft Plastics Taskforce to deal with the 'failure' of the REDcycle scheme.
With this temporary go-ahead in hand, the three stores can get together and talk about how to handle soft plastics in the meantime. This could include finding a place to keep them, getting them processed, recycled, or otherwise disposed of.
Mick Keogh, ACCC Deputy Chair, said: 'The application envisages that a longer-term solution to the issue of recycling soft plastics is needed and that the proposed conduct will not detract from or adversely affect the development of longer-term solutions.'
In the meantime, we urge all of our members to please be mindful of their soft plastics and to refrain from dumping them in stores, no matter how convenient it may be.
There are plenty of other ways to dispose of them properly, like taking them to your local recycling centre or finding a soft plastics drop-off point. You can also reuse them as garbage bins or for storage around the house.
Thank you for reading, and remember to always do your part in taking care of our planet!
If you're lucky enough to live near a store with a recycling station, great! You can just drop your plastics in there and be done with it. But what do you do when the recycling station is out of order or unavailable?
Unfortunately, some shoppers seem to think the answer is 'dump it anyway', which is exactly what Woolworths employees say has been happening in stores across Australia.
In an unofficial Facebook group for Woolies workers, footage has emerged of soft plastics left abandoned by customers in the section of a store previously occupied by a recycling station.
The signs clearly state that the supermarket's recycling program is currently unavailable due to network disruptions, but that didn't stop shoppers from dumping their plastics anyway.
Shoppers are leaving their soft plastics in store, despite the REDcycle program being unavailable. Credit: Facebook.
The footage prompted employees of the company to fire back at shoppers for intentionally doing the wrong thing and making their job harder.
'A customer read the sign, looked me in the eyes and still placed the plastic bags down before walking off,' wrote one commenter. Another staff member said dumping was such a common problem at her store that she sees it every day. 'My Everyday!' she wrote.
Another Woolworths employee talked about how customers don't pay attention to any signs. He said, 'Rule 1 - customers cannot and will not read signs, no matter how many you erect or how large they are.'
Recently, it came to light that recyclables left at Woolworths and Coles had not been recycled for months, which sparked the current recycling controversy.
Instead of being processed for recycling, the shopping bags, food wrappers, and bubble wraps that were collected as part of the REDcycle program at supermarkets have been sent to long-term warehouses - sitting unused and collecting dust.
Supermarkets are working together to address the problem of soft plastics. Credit: Pexels/Julia M Cameron.
On November 9, Woolworths confirmed that the REDcycle program was 'temporarily' shut down across the country, explaining that there had been problems with the provider's network, which caused soft plastic that hadn't been recycled to pile up.
Woolworths stores no longer feature REDcycle bins, and notices alerting customers of the change have been posted at service desks and in the areas where the bins had previously stood in stores across the nation.
Ever since the recycling program was put on hold, many customers have been wondering when it will resume.
On Friday, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said that it had given conditional interim approval for Woolworths, Coles, and ALDI to form a Soft Plastics Taskforce to deal with the 'failure' of the REDcycle scheme.
With this temporary go-ahead in hand, the three stores can get together and talk about how to handle soft plastics in the meantime. This could include finding a place to keep them, getting them processed, recycled, or otherwise disposed of.
Mick Keogh, ACCC Deputy Chair, said: 'The application envisages that a longer-term solution to the issue of recycling soft plastics is needed and that the proposed conduct will not detract from or adversely affect the development of longer-term solutions.'
There are plenty of other ways to dispose of them properly, like taking them to your local recycling centre or finding a soft plastics drop-off point. You can also reuse them as garbage bins or for storage around the house.
Thank you for reading, and remember to always do your part in taking care of our planet!
.png){kind=icon}
