REDcycle Official Media Statement

15 November 2022

Greenskin Wine's recycling partner information

You may have seen in the news that our recycling partner REDcycle has been a victim of its own success and due to unprecedented uptake of their soft plastics receival plan (largely through Coles and Woolworths), they have been inundated with material and have had to advise they have a backlog that is going to take around 6 months to clear.

We are advised that they are working with a number of parties including APCO to address this challenge and we should consider it a temporary issue.

What you can do to help.

The best thing you can do is keep your empty pouches for a few months until this situation eases – and then post them in as usual. They only weigh 17 grams each and take up very little space so hopefully it isn’t too big an ask.

What is important to remember.

The Greenskin recycling of empty pouches plan is the icing on our sustainability cake. It is not the only part of our approach to sustainability.
The majority of gains in emissions reduction are won in the production and freight to filling facility of the empty pouches (being less than 20% to that of glass) and post filling freight to final user (being 60% of that of glass.
So – even without our closed loop recycling program, Greenskin Wine pouches are still much more sustainable than glass.

You can read REDcycles Official Media Statement below or click here to download it.

We will continue to update our customers and data base as more information comes to hand.

Cheers,

Mike and Kim

REDcycle Official Media Statement

REDcycle program to temporarily pause.

REDcycle regrets to announce that it will temporarily pause its soft plastics collection program from 9 November 2022. REDcycle and its partners are committed to having the program back up and running as soon as possible.

Why is the program pausing?

Consumer recycling of soft plastic has grown exponentially in recent years, with a 350% increase in plastic returned since 2019. However, due to several unforeseen challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, REDcycle’s recycling partners have temporarily stopped accepting and processing soft plastics. This combination has put untenable pressure on the REDcycle business model.

What is REDcycle doing with the soft plastic it has collected?

The REDcycle team took the unwanted but necessary decision to hold the material in storage in the short term. Holding soft plastics in stock is not a perfect solution, but REDcycle took the decision to hold material in the short term, at great personal expense to the organisation, because they are fundamentally and profoundly committed to keeping the material out of landfill.

REDcycle has been working tirelessly to find alternative processing solutions. REDcycle and its recycling partners consider soft plastic to be a valuable resource and REDcycle material will be processed when its end user partners are operational again.

REDcycle’s recycling partner Close the Loop has provided a letter of intent to continue to accept significant volumes of REDcycle soft plastic, commencing early to mid-next year when their processing lines are operational again. Close the Loop’s new processing lines will be able to process up to 5,000 tonnes of REDcycle material per annum, which equates to nearly a year of REDcycle’s total collections (REDcycle collects approximately 7,000 tonnes per year).

Liz Kasell, CEO and founder, REDcycle commented: “Since I started REDcycle 10 years ago I have been trying to do the right thing for the community and for the planet. I started this program from my kitchen table when I looked at a bag of peas and asked why on earth can’t this be recycled? Through this program my goal has been to enable and empower people in the community like me to make a positive impact on the environment. Since we started, we have prevented 5.4 billion pieces of soft plastic entering landfill and our natural environments. Our team is devastated that the program will be paused and we are going to do everything that we can, in partnership with retail, industry and government, to have it back up and running again soon.”

What should people do with their soft plastic now?

For the short term, consumers are encouraged to put their soft plastics in their home rubbish bin. Please do not put it in your home kerbside recycling bin as it is not recyclable in that system.

- ENDS -

apco official media statement

Greenskin Wine is a Member of APCO, The Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation.

APCO is the organisation charged by government to facilitate the delivery of the 2025 Targets (aiming to be achieved by 31 December 2025).

The 2025 Targets are:

100% reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging.
70% of plastic packaging being recycled or composted.
50% of average recycled content included in packaging (revised from 30% in 2020).
The phase out of problematic and unnecessary single-use plastics packaging.

Please read the communication we have received from APCO below;