Christchurch residents can once again recycle their soft plastic packaging at participating stores across the City.

The distinctive recycling bins have returned to Countdown stores at Church Corner, Colombo Street, Hornby and Moorhouse and The Warehouse stores in Belfast, Barrington Mall, Eastgate, Hornby, Northlands Shopping Centre, Riccarton, and South City. More locations including New World stores will join the programme over the coming weeks.

Lyn Mayes, Scheme Manager says: “It is fantastic to bring soft plastic recycling back to Christchurch after a two-year hiatus. Because there are currently no soft plastic recycling processors in the South Island, Goodman Fielder has stepped in with a backhauling service from Christchurch back to Auckland.

“Kilmarnock Enterprises will collect the soft plastics from stores, bale and palletise the materials for transport back to Future Post in Auckland. We are doing what we promised when we put collections on hold in 2018 when overseas markets for our materials dried up. The good news is that everything we collect now is recycled in New Zealand.”

Countdown’s Church Corner Store Manager Christian Piggot says: “Countdown has proudly supported the Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme since it began, because we know how important it is to help our customers to do the right thing with their plastic packaging. A large number of our Christchurch customers have been keen to see the scheme come back to the region, so the launch of the scheme in a number of our stores will be welcome news!”

Goodman Fielder, a founding member of the Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme, will transport the collected bales of soft plastic back to Auckland.

Bernard Duignan, CEO Goodman Fielder comments: “As a business with operations across the North and South Island we are committed to working towards a sustainable future, and resuming collections of soft plastics in Christchurch is important to us. We’re proud to be working closely with the scheme to transport the soft plastics ‘bales’ back to Auckland on our existing routes, which minimises the transport carbon footprint required.”

The soft plastic collected in Christchurch will be recycled at Future Post’s plant in Waiuku, South Auckland.

Jerome Wenzlick, Founder of Future Post says the partnership with the Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme benefits everyone: “We are now processing around 70 tonnes of soft plastics every month which is equivalent to around 10 million bread bags, chip packets, frozen food bags or toilet roll wrappers diverted from landfill.

“As we have grown, the scheme has expanded around the North Island and now to the South Island where we sell so many of our fence posts. Our posts are now in vineyards, farms, parks and private land from Northland to Southland. We have added new products such as square posts, veggie boxes for gardens, retaining walls and parking stops to our range. “

The Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme has over 100 members representing around 75% of post-consumer soft plastic materials consumed annually. The scheme pays for the costs of collection through to processing.

This recycling service is 100% funded by industry members of the voluntary product stewardship scheme and with over 120 drop off points is now available to two thirds of New Zealanders.
“The return of the scheme to Christchurch is a testament to the dedication of our members and our team to work through challenges and deliver industry led solutions,” says The Packaging Forum CEO Rob Langford. “It’s a great example of how industry can voluntarily collaborate and succeed in its responsibility to deal with the end-of-life recovery for packaging.”

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