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.

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.'

Key Takeaways

• Woolworths employees have taken to social media to criticise customers for abandoning soft plastics in stores, despite the fact that the supermarket's recycling program is currently suspended.
• The footage, posted in an unofficial Facebook group for Woolworths workers, has prompted employees of the company to fire back at shoppers for doing the wrong thing.
• This latest furore about recycling comes after revelations that recycled items dropped at Woolworths and Coles had not been recycled for months.
• The ACCC has approved conditional interim authorisation for Coles, Woolworths and ALDI to form a Soft Plastics Taskforce to combat the collapse of the REDcycle scheme.

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!

 

[Carol]

Why should consumers be responsible for getting rid of plastic.
Stop producing plastics or make producers responsible for getting rid of it.
Just a thought.

 

[Macarj]

Why should consumers be responsible for getting rid of plastic.
Stop producing plastics or make producers responsible for getting rid of it.
Just a thought.

Good thought

 

[TheBear]

I'm finding this all very disheartening. I was collecting and delivering, plastic bottle tops, clean alfoils, batteries, bread tags, tablet/capsule foils and soft plastics for recycling. Bottle tops for use in prosthetics came to a halt. People making other 3D items from lids expected lids to be delivered or sent to them. (Bread tags were going the same way, but these tags are being replaced by cardboard type)Capsule foil recyclers want $'s for collection boxes. Soft plastics are not being recycled. I have given up on most recycling now.

 

[Ricci]

I definitely think that the companies responsible for producing this stuff should be held responsible for disposing of it.
What happened to all those good ideas that were around a while ago, play equipment, playground floors, roads etc etc.? I suppose it all got too hard.

 

[JayKay]

The rules and regulations change so frequently, it's too hard to keep up with the latest.
Yes, I know technology changes, but keep the consumers informed, please.

 

[BabsL]

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.

View attachment 9575

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.

View attachment 9574

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.'

Key Takeaways

• Woolworths employees have taken to social media to criticise customers for abandoning soft plastics in stores, despite the fact that the supermarket's recycling program is currently suspended.
• The footage, posted in an unofficial Facebook group for Woolworths workers, has prompted employees of the company to fire back at shoppers for doing the wrong thing.
• This latest furore about recycling comes after revelations that recycled items dropped at Woolworths and Coles had not been recycled for months.
• The ACCC has approved conditional interim authorisation for Coles, Woolworths and ALDI to form a Soft Plastics Taskforce to combat the collapse of the REDcycle scheme.

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!

There are a few stores still accepting limited quantities )using the REDcycle bins), bcz REPLAS in Carrum Downs still processes soft plastics into useful products. It was not all done by this RED mob! Ring REPLAS and ask them for drop off places.

 

[Dicky]

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.

View attachment 9575

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.

View attachment 9574

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.'

Key Takeaways

• Woolworths employees have taken to social media to criticise customers for abandoning soft plastics in stores, despite the fact that the supermarket's recycling program is currently suspended.
• The footage, posted in an unofficial Facebook group for Woolworths workers, has prompted employees of the company to fire back at shoppers for doing the wrong thing.
• This latest furore about recycling comes after revelations that recycled items dropped at Woolworths and Coles had not been recycled for months.
• The ACCC has approved conditional interim authorisation for Coles, Woolworths and ALDI to form a Soft Plastics Taskforce to combat the collapse of the REDcycle scheme.

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!

Not condoning this, but the supermarkets have been withholding information about this for a while. Some customers are maybe showing their displeasure. Supermarkets have continued to offer the service of recycling when they knew it would probably going to the dump. Let’s hope a solution can be found.

 

[Anamari]

Coles in Airport West in Victoria are still collecting soft plastics, I take mine there every week

 

[Keswickian]

We need to be incinerating this waste and generating electricity. Singapore has been operating 'waste to energy' plants for years but our pathetically useless State and Federal Governments are still dumping waste in landfill. I'm sure Companies in Singapore would be only too happy to build some plants for us in all our major cities if only we went to ask them.

 

[KarenS]

I definitely think that the companies responsible for producing this stuff should be held responsible for disposing of it.
What happened to all those good ideas that were around a while ago, play equipment, playground floors, roads etc etc.? I suppose it all got too hard.

I think companies should make much better efforts to not even use these products in the first place!
But another problem has been that Councils and other organisations who use/buy things made from recycled plastics are not ordering them! If the people who should be buying this stuff, like Local Councils for eg playground equipment, street furniture [seat, rubbish bins etc] & road-making stuff aren't buying the recycled products, where are the manufacturers who make this stuff going to sell their products? We have a small soft-plastic recycling company where I live, and they continuously report difficulties in selling their products. The Local Council has no obligation to buy these things ahead of things made from ''new'' plastic, so they don't!
Until somehow it is made mandatory for local government, and state and federal government dept's to purchase things made locally from recycled plastic in preference to cheap imported 'new' plastic products, the situation isn't going to even improve, let alone become an answer to the problem!
Add to that that everyone is screaming that they don't want to pay any more tax, or their rates are outrageously high, and all that other stuff about how "they" are ripping us off, or wasting tax- and rate-payers money, the whole situation will not improve. Everyone seems to want something for nothing - they want the Councils or Gov't Depts to provide services, or use recycled product or do more about potholes, etc etc, but no-one seems to have worked out that to do these things, more people are going to have to be employed to do the work, and more materials purchased to do the work with, and maybe those things might cost money!! Do they think $$s grow on trees?

 

[Dicky]

Coles in Airport West in Victoria are still collecting soft plastics, I take mine there every week

But maybe they are dumping them in landfill- apparently there was only one factory receiving the material and it burNed down and I think the company went broke. It w be good if each state government could open one up each?

 

[Penny4]

Well that's good of the ACCC to tell the supermarkets to buckle up to find a solution.
However, to keep on recycling plastic is ineffective in the long term.
Product manufacturers need to sort out the plastic matter in the first place before it hits the supermarket shelves.

 

[Chris P Bacon]

We need to be incinerating this waste and generating electricity. Singapore has been operating 'waste to energy' plants for years but our pathetically useless State and Federal Governments are still dumping waste in landfill. I'm sure Companies in Singapore would be only too happy to build some plants for us in all our major cities if only we went to ask them.

Great innovation but you won't get Albo or the greenies to make such an easy decision like that. He will want to discuss this for years.

 

[Glo72]

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.

View attachment 9575

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.

View attachment 9574

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.'

Key Takeaways

• Woolworths employees have taken to social media to criticise customers for abandoning soft plastics in stores, despite the fact that the supermarket's recycling program is currently suspended.
• The footage, posted in an unofficial Facebook group for Woolworths workers, has prompted employees of the company to fire back at shoppers for doing the wrong thing.
• This latest furore about recycling comes after revelations that recycled items dropped at Woolworths and Coles had not been recycled for months.
• The ACCC has approved conditional interim authorisation for Coles, Woolworths and ALDI to form a Soft Plastics Taskforce to combat the collapse of the REDcycle scheme.

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!

 

[Glo72]

Woolies did say that they couldn’t accept the plastic bags anymore and the consumer was to put them in their bins. I thought everyone had recycling bins. I recycle everything that is recyclable and the rest goes into the normal bin. People who think they shouldn’t have to recycle are irresponsible in my opinion,after all we helped trash the planet.

 

[Vinylted]

We need to be incinerating this waste and generating electricity. Singapore has been operating 'waste to energy' plants for years but our pathetically useless State and Federal Governments are still dumping waste in landfill. I'm sure Companies in Singapore would be only too happy to build some plants for us in all our major cities if only we went to ask them.

The by product of the Singapore incinerators is ash, which they are burying under the sea, if my memory serves me correctly. Another problem shaping up?

 

[Vinylted]

Woolies did say that they couldn’t accept the plastic bags anymore and the consumer was to put them in their bins. I thought everyone had recycling bins. I recycle everything that is recyclable and the rest goes into the normal bin. People who think they shouldn’t have to recycle are irresponsible in my opinion,after all we helped trash the planet.

The whole saga of paper to plastic with environmental groups and supermarkets fostered by the greens has only resulted in more profits for the Supermarkets, who do only what suits them when they can turn a dollar, WA were making roads out of soft plastics, what happened to that???

 

[Door Knob]

I’m confused, don’t use plastic bad for the planet. Go back to paper, ( trees are cut down for the paper) bad for the planet. Tell me what we should use? Maybe go back to glass, and recycle all. This must be the answer.

 

[Vinylted]

I’m confused, don’t use plastic bad for the planet. Go back to paper, ( trees are cut down for the paper) bad for the planet. Tell me what we should use? Maybe go back to glass, and recycle all. This must be the answer.

Mining steel to make cans, bad for planet! Everything we do to enable modern living can be said to be bad for the planet...