Finish Announces Free Recycling Programme For Soft Plastics Dish Care Packaging In Australia And New Zealand

Auckland, 22 April 2024: Finish, a global leader for automatic dishwashing products is now offering a new easy-to-access, free recycling programme for Finish branded dish care packaging in partnership with innovative recycling company TerraCycle®.

The Finish Free Recycling Programme provides Australians and New Zealanders with a free and convenient way to recycle Finish branded dish care soft plastics and help divert them from landfills. In Australia and New Zealand, soft plastics are not recyclable via kerbside council recycling and majority of the time, they are sent to landfill1 due to the complex composition of the material. Research from Roy Morgan shows 11.92 million Australians (58%) owned a dishwasher in 20192 whilst in New Zealand, 74.2% of households in 2023 owned a dishwasher3. With dishwasher ownership having grown in recent years, increased consumption of dish care products is only inevitable.

Soft plastics are currently not accepted by kerbside recycling services in Australia nor New Zealand making the Finish Free Recycling Programme invaluable as it is available to Australians and New Zealanders regardless of where they live.

Consumers can participate by collecting empty Finish branded dish care in cardboard boxes in their homes, offices, schools, or community centres. Once their collection boxes are full, they can download a free postage label from the programme webpage and send the waste to TerraCycle for recycling. Businesses, schools and community groups can also participate in the programme as a TerraCycle public drop-off point and recycle on behalf of a community.

Finish’s Head of Sustainability, Laurie Ferland-Caouette says, “Here at Finish, we prioritise offering effective cleaning products to households, while ensuring we help reduce plastic waste where possible. We are very excited to be able to offer a free recycling programme with TerraCycle for our soft plastic dish care packaging which anyone in Australia or New Zealand can access for free via their local post office.”

TerraCycle General Manager Jean Bailliard says, “While everything is technically recyclable, complex packaging may not be accepted by traditional kerbside recycling because it is more difficult-to-recycle and the costs of recycling is often greater than the value of recycled raw material.

1 CSIRO: How to manage soft plastic recycling. November 2022.

2 Roy Morgan: Dishwasher ownership grows and purchasing of dishwashing liquid declines in 2019. June 2019.

3 Euromonitor Passport: Economies and Consumers Annual Data: Possession of Dishwasher stats. March 2024.

“At TerraCycle we aim to eliminate the idea of waste and divert as much waste as possible away from landfills, and even more importantly, away from our waterways and oceans. This is why we are very excited by the opportunity to work with Finish to make recycling accessible to Australians and New Zealanders in every postcode in the country. Thanks to this easy, free and convenient recycling programme, everyone from everywhere in Australia and New Zealand will be able to send their empty Finish packaging back to TerraCycle to be recycled.”

For more information on the Finish Free Recycling Programme, or to register for the programme, please visit: https://www.terracycle.com/en-NZ/brigades/finish-free-recycling-programme

1] CSIRO: How to manage soft plastic recycling. November 2022.

[2] Roy Morgan: Dishwasher ownership grows and purchasing of dishwashing liquid declines in 2019. June 2019.

[3] Euromonitor Passport: Economies and Consumers Annual Data: Possession of Dishwasher stats. March 2024.

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