The Central Adelaide Waste and Recycling Authority (CAWRA) is working with the industry lead soft plastic stewardship scheme and the Cities of Adelaide, Charles Sturt and Port Adelaide Enfield to trial the collection of post-consumer soft plastics for recycling.
We’ve now reached our target number of households to help test this new process. Sorry, we are no longer accepting registrations.
Thank you for your interest in recycling soft plastics. We’ll share more information on the future of the program once the pilot concludes.
Register now to participate in our free Soft Plastics Recycling Pilot (Phase 2)
The Central Adelaide Waste and Recycling Authority (CAWRA) is working with the industry lead soft plastic stewardship scheme and the Cities of Adelaide, Charles Sturt and Port Adelaide Enfield to trial the collection of post-consumer soft plastics for recycling.
Participation is free but spaces are limited so Register now to secure your place and receive your soft plastics recycling starter kit.
Residents that participated in the earlier trial (phase 1) trial will need to re-register to be part of the pilot (phase 2).
Soft Plastics Recycling Frequently Asked Questions
Questions about participating in the trial
At the moment, participation in the trial is limited to a capped number of households. We have reached capacity and the trial is full.
Households participating in the trial will be sent a soft plastics recycling 'starter pack', which contains 20 specially printed orange bags.
Once you have your orange bags, you can start recycling your soft plastics in them by:
Step 1: Fill the supplied orange bag with clean, empty and dry soft scrunchable plastics.
Step 2: When the bag is full and tight like a basketball, firmly tie with a double knot and place in your yellow-lidded recycling bin for collection. This may be monthly or even longer, depending on when the bag is full.
Soft plastics can only be recycled in your yellow lidded recycling bin if contained within the supplied orange bag. Soft plastics should NEVER be placed loose in your recycling bin.
Thanks to the industry lead soft plastic stewardship scheme, the Central Adelaide Waste and Recycling Authority, the Cities of Adelaide, Charles Sturt and Port Adelaide Enfield and the soft plastics recycling industry, this pilot program is available at no cost to participating households.
The pilot phase will allow all partners to learn about the collection, processing and costs associated with recycling soft plastics using our yellow-lidded recycling bins.
No. Our focus at this stage is on assessing household recycling behaviour. As such, participation is currently offered to a limited number of households only.
Should additional participation be required, we may consider adding more households and businesses in the future.
This program allows for 1 registration per eligible household. A starter pack containing 20 orange bags will be issued to each household following registration. Duplicate registrations at the same address will be deleted.
A limited number of additional (top-up) kits of 20 bags will be made available through the year if you run out, while stocks last.
Questions about using the orange bags
Soft plastic is 'scrunchable' plastic. Use the 'scrunch' test as a guide - soft plastics tend to stay scrunched in a ball whereas hard plastics go back to their shape or can't be scrunched.
We want all your clean, empty and dry soft plastic.
Yes please
- Biscuit wrappers (not trays)
- Bread bags (without the tag)
- Bubble wrap
- Cereal box liners
- Chip packets and other silver lined snack wrappers
- Chocolate and other confectionary wrappers/bags
- Citrus netting bags (any metal clips removed)
- Cling wrap/plastic film
- Condiment sachets
- Document sleeves, plastic mail satchels and carrier bags (labels removed if possible).
- Foam (polyfoam) wrapping (PE)
- Fresh and frozen food bags
- Ice cream and icy pole wrappers
- Mesh onion bags (any metal clips removed)
- Muesli bar wrappers
- Newspaper/magazine wrap
- Pasta, noodle and rice bags/packets
- Pet food bags
- Plastic bags
- Potting mix bags (clean)
- Produce bags
- Six-pack ring (soft flexible plastic)
- Soft plastic labelled HDPE, LDPE or PP
- Soft plastic numbers 2, 4 and 5All soft plastic items accepted in the REDcycle service, bearing the REDcycle logo or the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL) – Return to Store/Store drop-off symbol, can go into the orange bag
- Snap lock/ Zip lock bags
- Squeeze pouches (hard plastic lid and spout removed and clean)
- Vacuum seal bags
- Wine/water bladders (hard plastic spout removed)
No thanks
- Balloons
- Biodegradable/degradable plastic
- Biscuit Trays
- Blister Packs
- Bottles/cans
- Bottle tops
- Bread tags
- Cellophane
- Clothing/linen
- Compostable plastics
- Desiccant sachets/moisture absorbers
- Elastic bands
- Face masks
- Fruit/berry punnets
- Food waste
- Fruit stickers
- Hard/rigid plastic
- Laminated paper
- Meat trays (foam and plastic)
- Paper and cardboard
- Plant based plastic
- Plastic bags with cloth, rope or ribbon handles
- Plastic containers
- Plastic lined paper
- Plastic packaging tape
- Plastic rope/twine
- Plastic straws
- Plastic takeaway containers
- Polystyrene
- Rubber/latex gloves
- Silicon food storage bags
- Single portion rigid sauce packet
- Soft Plastic labelled PET, PVC, PS or nylon
- Soft plastic numbers 1, 3, 6 and 7
- Sticky/adhesive tape
- Toothpaste tubes
- Tea and coffee bags
Yes – just place these in your orange bags for recycling.
If the bag has a hard plastic slide on it, cut that off first before recycling the rest in your orange bag.
Soft plastics with labels adhered to them are still acceptable in your orange bags for recycling.
Yes, soft plastic pouches are acceptable in your orange bags for recycling, so long as they are clean and don’t have a rigid plastic spout attached to them.
If your pouch has a rigid plastic spout attached, you will need to dispose of it in your landfill bin.
We previously trialled a number of different bags, including yellow CurbyBags with QR codes printed on them which were supported by the CurbyApp.
If you still have some of these, feel free to use them up to recycle your soft plastics until you run out. There is no longer any need to scan the QR code before placing them in your recycling bin.
The new pilot phase in 2025 is using specially printed orange bags.
If you participated in the early trial with Curby and wish to continue recycling your soft plastics, please re-register for the new pilot using the form that is linked to this page. You will be sent a pack of 20 specially printed orange bags to place your soft plastics into for recycling.
While we continue to work with interstate providers for the recycling of soft plastics, there are no arrangements currently in place in SA to recycle soft plastics collected in other bags, including the yellow CurbyBags.
Yes – you can keep filling the supplied orange bags and adding to your regular yellow lidded recycling bins until you use them all up.
Contact PAE to find out your options to pay for an additional yellow lidded recycling bin.
The pilot has been designed around the use of 20 bags per registered household across the full year of the pilot.
A limited number of additional orange bags (top-up packs) will be made available for pick-up once all registered pilot participants have received their starter packs.
Contact us to request these – we will take your details so that you can be notified when top-up packs are available for you to collect (while stocks last).
Remember to fill your bags up as tightly as you can.
Questions about recycling soft plastics
Soft plastics appear with all sorts of products and most of it ends up in landfill. This pilot is testing ways in which post-consumer soft plastics can be collected and recycled through your kerbside recycling bin. This provides a 'second chance' for soft plastics, which are long-lived materials that are suitable to be recycled again and again.
To build a truly circular economy for soft plastics, we need to make it easy for people to recycle soft plastics after use and support the development of a new, advanced recycling industry for soft plastics here in Australia. As it develops, that industry will increase its capacity to take post-consumer soft plastic and turn it back into new packaging, ready for reuse.
It is also important to reduce your use of soft plastics, where practical alternatives exist. While not all soft plastics can be readily avoided, always ask yourself the question "Do I need this?" before making a purchase.
Your orange bags (filled with recyclable soft plastics) will be sorted at the Central Adelaide Waste and Recycling Authority recycling centre. They will then be sent to a plastics processor for shredding, further sorting (by plastic type) and to be made into new plastic products.
This process helps reduce the need for virgin plastics, minimises waste sent to landfills for disposal, lowers emissions and cuts down on litter.
Loose soft plastics and bagged recyclable items can get tangled in recycling machinery, which is why we always ask our residents to not bag recyclable items normally.
The orange pilot bags are designed for easy identification. When filled and sealed correctly, the bags can be easily separated from other recyclable items and will not get caught in the machinery.
It’s very important to keep all other items in your yellow lidded recycling bin loose (not bagged) as you usually do.
We previously trialled a number of different bags, including yellow CurbyBags with QR codes printed on them which were supported by the CurbyApp.
If you still have some of these, feel free to use them up to recycle your soft plastics until you run out. There is no longer any need to scan the QR code before placing them in your recycling bin.
The new pilot phase in 2025 is using specially printed orange bags.
While we continue to work with interstate providers for the recycling of soft plastics, there are no arrangements currently in place in SA to recycle soft plastics collected in other bags, including the yellow CurbyBags.
The first phase of our soft plastics collection trial commenced in late 2022. It showed that the 'bag in bin' method of collecting soft plastics was well-received by residents and valued for its convenience and ease of use. A full report on the outcomes of the earlier trial is available online here: Phase 1 Trial results
Other questions
Unfortunately, participation in this phase of the pilot is only available to a limited number of households in the Cities of Adelaide, Charles Sturt and Port Adelaide Enfield. Households will be permitted to register on a 'first come first served' basis until the capped number of households per Council is reached.
Once the cap is reached for each Council, registrations will be closed for the remainder of the pilot.
We are collaborating with the recycling scheme coordinators to support the expansion of soft plastic recycling as the capacity of the recycling industry increases. However, to effectively test various pieces of the recycling process and scheme administration, we need to keep the number of trial participants manageable. This allows us to ensure that the plastics are properly recycled and to refine the system without overloading it.
Yes! During the pilot we will invite you to complete some surveys. We look forward to hearing your views on how we can improve the program.
Throughout the pilot, Councils, recyclers, brands, governments and all our partners will be collecting data and information on what works and what can be improved to inform the next phase and to grow the program.
The former REDcycle store drop-off scheme is no longer in operation within South Australia.
If in-store drop-off for soft plastics to be recycled is offered again in future, we will encourage our residents to make use of that service.
Please email any further questions to enquiries@cawra.sa.gov.au
Thank you for your interest in soft plastics recycling.
