So what constitutes 'soft-plastic' and where can it be recycled

Soft plastics are 'scrunchable'. They include plastic shopping bags and other plastic packaging..

What about plastic bags?

All "scrunchable" plastic including shopping bags, plastic food packaging, fruit netting and dry cleaning bags can be recycled although most often not via your home recycle bin.

There are only a handful of councils, mainly in regional towns, which will accept these soft plastics.

The best method is to bundle all your plastic bags into one bag and take it to a REDcycle bin located in most metro and large regional supermarkets.

These plastics are then recycled into plastic school furniture.

Design with Ease

“ The most common recycling mistake is throwing in soft plastics such as plastic bags, food packaging or any "scrunchable" plastic in with the rest of your plastic containers." War on Waste

Soft plastics, the kind that can be scrunched into a ball, are among the biggest problems in the kerbside recycling system. In fact 8 out of 10 councils consider them the number one problem as they get caught in the recycling machinery.

The good news is these plastics can be recycled at many supermarkets. The bad news, as revealed in research done for Recycling Week, is that only 22% of people know about the program!

This free program is made possible through RedCycle, which has worked with Coles and Woolworths/Safeway Supermarkets to set up collection bins in stores across most of metro-Australia. The cost of collecting and processing the material is covered by many of Australia’s best known manufacturers.

The plastic is made into furniture for schools and kindergartens among other things.

What You Can Recycle

A good way to remember to recycle these plastics is to put them straight into your reusable shopping bag. You can recycle

• Plastic shopping bags

• Bread, rice, pasta, lolly and cereal bags

• Biscuit packs (but not the trays) 

• Frozen food bags

• Newspaper wrap

• Bubble wrap 

• Dry cleaning bags

• Fruit and veg bags and netting

• Toilet paper and similar product packaging

• Old green (and other re-usable) bags

Check out the link below to find your nearest Redcycle recycling point:

http://www.redcycle.net.au/where-to-redcycle/