Nestlé and iQ Renew trial kerbside soft plastic recycling project in Australia

03 Mar 2020 --- Nestlé has partnered with Australian recycler iQ Renew to trial soft plastic recycling from over 100,000 households through kerbside recycling, diverting approximately 750,000 metric tons of soft plastic from landfill. The collection, sorting and processing pilot is designed to support householders pre-sort their soft plastic into a recycling stream. The collaboration could also unlock the significant potential for soft plastic packaging to become a resource in a range of different manufacturing processes.

"Australia has limitations and inconsistencies in its collecting systems, sorting, and processing infrastructure. We hope that this trial becomes a means of facilitating improvement," a Nestlé spokesperson tells PackagingInsights. The project starts with a pilot of 2,000 households and will subsequently expand to over 100,000 households later this year. Locations for the trial are currently under consideration.

iQ Renew maintains that soft plastics, not only make up 20 percent of the volume of Australian household landfill bins, but are also frequently found incorrectly placed in recycling bins. “Most Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) can’t separate soft plastic from other items in household recycling. Soft plastic can be recycled, but what we lack is a robust, scalable system to collect and process it using existing kerbside collection,” says iQ Renew CEO Danial Gallagher.

Nestlé’s next step
Recycling is pegged as one of the main solutions to plastic pollution problems; however, active consumer participation and improved recycling infrastructure are key battles yet to be won. Recent research from Nestlé Waters North America found that nearly half of the US survey participants say it is easier to throw away plastic than to recycle it. “The trial will uncover how households understand soft plastics collection and answer critical questions about how it affects their in-home recycling behavior,” says Nestlé Australia CEO Sandra Martinez.

Steps requiring action through the plastics value chain.Having been called one of the world’s worst plastic polluters by Break Free From Plastic, Nestlé has brought its recyclability efforts up to speed. At the National Plastics Summit held in the Parliament House this week, Nestlé declared its commitment to procuring AUD$2.3 billion (US$1.5 billion) worth of recycled food-grade plastic and reducing its use of virgin plastic by one-third, both goals to be achieved by 2025. Here, the focus is set on eliminating problematic plastics, such as PVC, dark pigments and polystyrene, specifically. Lastly, Nestlé aims for all its local packaging to carry the Australasian Recycling Label, an on-pack labelling system which clearly explains how to recycle each component of a pack, by the end of this year.

“Our consumer research tells us that consumers are very keen to recycle, but that there are some common mistakes made that lead to recycling being contaminated. We strongly support the Australasian Recycling Label as a tool to help consumers know how to recycle correctly,” the Nestlé spokesperson states.

Australian National Packaging Targets
The Nestlé-iQ Renew trial aligns with Australia’s National Packaging Targets. By 2025, the Australian government plans to make 100 percent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging and recycle or compost 70 percent of plastic packaging. Likewise, Australian packaging will have to include 30 percent of its average recycled content in a major bid to phase out problematic and unnecessary single-use plastics packaging.

These goals align with the nation’s National Waste Targets, agreed by its Environment Ministers last November. These umbrella goals aim to:

• Ban the export of waste plastic, paper, glass and tires, commencing in the second half of 2020.

• Reduce the total waste generated recovery rate from all waste streams following the waste hierarchy by 2030.

• Significantly increase the use of recycled content by governments and industry.

• Phase out problematic and unnecessary plastics by 2025.

• Halve the amount of organic waste sent to landfill by 2030.

• Make comprehensive, economy-wide and timely data publicly available to support better consumer, investment and policy decisions.

This plan complements and supports the implementation of better waste management plans by state and territory governments, local government, business and industry. These targets and actions will guide investment and national efforts to 2030 and beyond.

By Anni Schleicher

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