Brimbank residents can now recycle their soft plastics and polystyrene locally and free of charge.
This is the first permanent soft plastics recycling program of its kind in metro Melbourne with a guaranteed local end use.
The soft plastics collected will be used to help make new roads here in Brimbank. Council has partnered with recycling company Close the Loop to provide them with the soft plastics that will be turned into an asphalt additive called TonerPlas.
It’s an innovative solution to a significant issue. Each year, Brimbank residents use enough soft plastics, such as chip packets and food wrappers, to blanket the MCG oval 15 times over— and most of it ends up in landfill or pollutes the environment.
There’s a better way forward. Every one kilometre of road paved with TonerPlas modified asphalt uses about 430,000 plastic bags. One year’s worth of Brimbank’s soft plastics could help pave five kilometres of road. That is the equivalent of about two million less plastic bags in landfill or littering Brimbank streets.
Brimbank Mayor Cr Thuy Dang encouraged Brimbank residents to use the service.
“Soft plastic is one of the most problematic types of waste. It either ends up in landfill, or it pollutes our green spaces and waterways. Polystyrene too cannot be recycled through kerbside collections, and often ends up in landfill,” Mayor Dang said.
“Council’s new recycling service – to accept soft plastics and polystyrene at our Brimbank Resource Recovery Centre, is part of our broader effort to expand our circular economy programs and reduce illegal dumping and litter, by making it easier for residents to dispose of hard-to-recycle materials responsibly.”
Drop off your soft plastics and polystyrene
Brimbank residents can drop off their clean and dry soft plastics – scrunchable plastic – and polystyrene for free recycling at the Brimbank Resource Recovery Centre in Stadium Drive, Keilor Park.
The polystyrene dropped off for recycling will be collected by our recycling partner and used to make products like insulation and light bricks.
Visit our Soft plastics and polystyrene recycling page to learn more about this new service.
