REDcycle collapsed in November 2022 leaving about 11,000 tonnes stockpiled at 44 sites. The supermarkets' Soft Plastics Taskforce restarted in-store collection under Soft Plastic Stewardship Australia (SPSA), which the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) authorised for eight years in November 2025 with conditions (annual public reporting, independent reviews, no exclusive processor contracts). SPSA lists more than 700 collection points reaching almost 70 per cent of Australians; Woolworths says its bins cover metro Sydney, Melbourne, south-east Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and, since May 2026, Adelaide. Perth and Tasmania are not covered by any source we could open.
What happens: collected material goes to iQRenew (New South Wales (NSW), mechanical recycling into benches, bollards and feedstock), saveBOARD (building panels), Plascrete and Close the Loop (asphalt additive), with a pyrolysis pilot at APR Plastics. Most output is downcycled, not new food packaging. Of the REDcycle stockpiles, Queensland, Western Australia (WA) and NSW were cleared by 2025; Victoria and South Australia (SA) were due by mid-2026 and we could not confirm completion. Accepted: clean, dry, scrunchable plastics (codes 2, 4, 5). Free.
How to start: spsa.au/collection-locations/