Soft plastic packaging includes the 'scrunchable' plastic bags and wrappers that food, grocery and other products come in. The most common items are bread bags, breakfast cereal bags, frozen vegetable bags, ice cream wrappers, confectionery bags, cling wrap, bubble wrap and plastic wrapping from toilet paper.

The yellow CurbyBags will be manually collected at the CAWRA materials recovery facility, where they will be baled and sent interstate to APR Plastics in Victoria. APR recycle the soft plastics through an advanced recycling process that converts the material into an oil that can then be used to make new plastics.

Soft plastic packaging keeps food fresh, safe and intact. By taking part in this trial, the soft plastic packaging can be recycled instead of going to landfill.

Our bagged soft plastics kerbside recycling trial is the start of a bigger plan to design an industry-led scheme for recycling soft plastic packaging in Australia. The scheme aims to create an advanced recycling industry producing recycled, food-grade soft plastic packaging, which currently isn’t made in Australia. The trial is one of a number of trials being conducted to help design the model for kerbside collection and sorting of used soft plastics.

This trial is not connected to the REDcycle store drop-off scheme and is not affected by the recent announcement that REDcycle has temporarily paused its scheme from 9 November 2022. The trial in PAE will continue uninterrupted. The plastics collected in this trial will go for processing to the APR Plastics recycling centre in Victoria, as mentioned above.

While the REDcycle service is unavailable, we can all play a part in reducing single use plastics. You can do this by:

• Choosing to buy unwrapped produce where you can
• Bringing your own shopping veggie bags from home
• Choosing bulk products where possible and using containers to store and transport individual portions
• Choosing glass bottles or buying containers only when they are made from recycled plastic

Only households in the suburb of Alberton, who have received and are using CurbyPacks can participate in the trial.

If you are not participating in the trial or if you do not have any CurbyBags, please do not place any soft plastics in your recycling bin.

Yes- new Alberton residents can collect their CurbyBags from the Civic Centre, 163 St Vincent St, Port Adelaide

Taking part in this trial is not compulsory but we’d love you to participate. By participating in the trial, you are helping us to build and design a model for successful bagged soft plastics recycling in Australia. You might also be surprised at how much more space you have in your regular rubbish bin come collection night.

If you do not wish to participate, please return your starter pack via return to sender mail. Alternatively, you can drop the pack in at our Civic Centre.

Please DO NOT pass on starter packs to friends or family, because only households in the trial area are able to participate.

If you received a pack of bags in the post and you run out of bags before the end of the 12-month trial period, you can collect additional bags from our Civic Centre at 163 St Vincent Street Port Adelaide.

Unfortunately, only households in the selected trial area can take part in the bagged soft plastics recycling trial. Please don’t put any soft plastics in your recycling bin if you aren’t part of the trial. With the pause of the REDcycle store drop-off program from 9 November 2022, you should place soft plastics in your household rubbish (blue lid) bin. Please contact us if you live in Alberton but did not receive your pack.

Yes, it’s free. Thanks to the support of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, the Australian Government, the Australian food and grocery manufacturing industry, Green Industries SA and the City of PAE, this trial service is provided at no cost to participating households.

We need soft plastics to be collected in a dedicated bag because loose soft plastics can jam up recycling machinery in trucks and at recycling facilities. The yellow trial bags have been provided specifically because they are the right strength, and because they are easy to identify and sort if you have filled and sealed them correctly. It’s very important to dispose of all other recyclable items in your yellow-lidded recycling bin loosely, the way you normally would (not in any kind of bag).

Ensure that your yellow bag is full like a pillow and has the air compressed out of it before placing it in the yellow lid recycling bin.

Only clean and dry soft plastics can be recycled.