Australian soft-plastic recycling expansion

IQ Renew has launched Australia’s largest dedicated post-consumer soft-plastic recycling facility near Somersby on the New South Wales Mid North Coast. Replacing the collapsed REDcycle program, the plant is designed to process up to 14,000 tonnes of soft plastics annually, with future expansion plans to reach 24,000 tonnes. The facility converts household soft plastics into premium recycled resin for new packaging and domestic products.

The recycling initiative has expanded its accessibility through the introduction of Curby ‘Bag in a Bin’ tags at participating supermarkets, including 22 Woolworths stores in the Newcastle, Port Stephens, and Central Coast regions. This system allows residents to place eligible plastics into a bag, secure it with a registered tag, and include it in their standard yellow-lidded kerbside recycling bins. These tagged bags are then separated at Material Recovery Facilities to prevent contamination. The Soft Plastics Engineered Commodity (SPEC) facility operated by iQRenew received $9.1 million in grant support from the Australian and New South Wales governments.