Plastic-wrapped chocolate bars, two-minute noodles and breakfast cereals could all become more expensive under an Australia-wide recycling scheme likely to win approval.
The competition watchdog on Monday signalled it wanted to green-light the creation of a voluntary, industry-led scheme to collect and recycle soft plastic packaging from consumers.
Backed by major supermarkets and food giants Mars and Nestle, the scheme would succeed REDcycle, which collapsed in 2022 with an estimated 11,000 tonnes of stockpiled soft plastic strewn across dozens of depots.
The new operation would be funded through a soft plastic packaging levy that could be passed on to consumers.
It was “an important stepping stone to expanding collections and recycling”, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said.
More than 500,000 tonnes of soft plastic packaging is used by manufacturers in packaging their products every year, with little of that recycled, according to industry figures.
“It is clear that many Australians are concerned about the environmental impacts of soft plastic packaging and want to recycle it,” ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh said on Monday.
“We believe the proposed scheme will result in an environmental benefit as it aims to take over and expand the current in-store collection and kerbside pilots for recycling soft plastic packaging, meaning some soft plastics are likely to be diverted from landfill.”
The scheme and levy would be operated by Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia, initially made up of Nestle, Mars and McCormick Foods alongside Woolworths, Coles and Aldi.
The levy would be collected on scheme participants based on how much business-to-consumer soft plastic packaging they put on the market.
For example, a manufacturer selling a product to a supermarket is considered to have placed it on the market.
About 70 per cent of soft plastic packaging is business-to-consumer.
Submissions on the competition watchdog’s draft determination to approve the scheme are due in two weeks.
It follows the quiet resumption of soft plastics recycling in supermarkets in recent months.
Aldi and Woolworths have both attributed the slow uptake in that scheme to a lack of publicity.
The spectacular collapse of the for-profit REDcycle in late 2022 led to the startling revelation soft plastics that consumers had been dutifully returning to supermarkets had been secretly stockpiled at warehouses across the nation.
Supply-chain issues, the COVID-19 pandemic and insufficient demand for the products REDcycle produced from melted-down plastics were blamed for its failure.
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