New Zealand-based grocery distributor Foodstuffs Ltd. has announced it will implement the Soft Plastics Recycling Programme in South Island, New Zealand.
The programme will allow residents to dispose of shopping bags, bread bags and other soft plastics in bins located in several retail outlets throughout the city, including all Christchurch New World supermarkets, PAK’nSAVE Rangiora and PAK’nSAVE Riccarton.
Once collected, the material will be baled and reprocessed into feedstock to be made into new products, such as outdoor furniture, decking material, road bollards and soft plastics recycling bins, Foodstuffs says.
“Now Cantabrians have the opportunity to play their part in keeping these soft plastics out of the landfills in their own part of the county,” Foodstuffs Managing Director Steve Anderson says. He adds that the programme has been resoundingly successful in Auckland and Hamilton stores.
Melbourne-based REDcycle, which operates the programme and tracks progress by each store, says 80 percent of the soft plastics collected from all participating outlets to date come from a New World or PAK’nSAVE store.
“The response from our customers has been tremendous,” Anderson says. “It proves that if you give people the opportunity to do the right thing, they won’t disappoint.”
The South Island launch of the Soft Plastics Recycling Programme coincides with Foodstuffs’ introduction of its new recyclable butchery trays, which won the award for the country’s top waste minimization initiative of 2016 at the Environment Ministry’s Green Ribbon Awards.
“It’s estimated up to 80 million meat trays will be kept out of landfills every year,” Anderson says. “That combined with the soft plastics recycling initiative all adds up to lot less waste polluting our environment, something I think we can truly be proud of.”
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