Authorities say they still believe Australia’s plastic stockpiles will eventually be recycled. 

Liz Kasell, the founder of the collapsed soft plastics recycler REDcycle, has defended her decision to continue collecting materials despite the company's collapse in November last year. 

The scheme, which was linked with major supermarkets in Australia, was paused due to a lack of demand for the material. Later, environmental watchdogs found large stockpiles of soft plastic across multiple states. 

REDcycle was subsequently charged by Victoria's Environment Protection Authority and declared insolvent, leaving millions owed to creditors.

Kasell remains resolute, stating that until a fire in a Melbourne warehouse run by recycling company Close the Loop in June 2022, the collected material was being recycled. 

The fire destroyed a production line turning soft plastics into an additive and binding agent for asphalt, which was the main end-point for the collected materials.

“In my heart of hearts, there was no doubt this material was getting recycled. It just was sitting at a very long red light, because downstream capacity was coming. I never... stopped believing this was going to be recycled. If it goes to landfill, it doesn't have a chance,” she said in a recent interview with the ABC's War on Waste program.

In the aftermath of REDcycle's collapse, Coles and Woolworths, major supermarkets in Australia, have taken responsibility for the 11,000 tonnes of stockpiled plastic in 44 warehouses. 

They are exploring options, including the possibility of chemical recycling offshore, as Australia currently lacks the capacity to process soft plastics into food-grade plastic at scale.

Australia's soft plastics recycling sector is undergoing significant investment, with the federal government committing $60 million to recycling modernisation. 

However, the country still faces challenges in processing soft plastics efficiently. This has prompted discussions about standardising packaging types, scaling up collection efforts, and creating markets for recycled products to boost the recycling sector.

As Australia seeks solutions to the soft plastics problem, the supermarkets aim to launch a new not-for-profit collection scheme with independent governance by the end of 2023. 

In the meantime, small-scale recycling initiatives, such as the one set up by the City of Kingston in Melbourne, are making efforts to tackle the issue locally.