Metcash and 7-Eleven are applauded by the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) for joining the industry’s collaborative effort to recycle soft plastics, making them the first retailers to support the initiative.
The industry-led National Plastics Recycling Scheme (NPRS), unprecedented in its scope and scale, aims to transform hard-to-recycle soft plastics destined for landfill into food grade packaging and other materials.
This will be done through collecting household soft plastics from multiple collection channels, including kerbside, and plugging gaps in the recycling chain to create a truly circular economy and a long-term solution to recycling soft plastics.
7-Eleven and Metcash join over 40 brands including Nestle, Unilever and Fonterra who are committed to a robust circular economy for soft plastics.
AFGC chief executive officer Tanya Barden said, “We’re delighted to see Metcash and 7-Eleven joining this exciting industry initiative. Collaboration with all parts of the packaging and recycling supply chain is central to advancing a sustainable circular economy for soft plastics in Australia.”
AFGC calls on all industries that use soft plastics including manufacturers and retailers of fashion and general merchandise to help resource this joint effort and build the processing infrastructure required to create a circular economy.
The future success of the NPRS will allow participants to confidently access and make soft plastic packaging with recycled content for the Australian market. It fosters partnerships in the entire supply chain including recyclers, manufacturers, packagers, councils, waste collectors and retailers.