The second week of November each year is National Recycling Week and research shows the majority of Australians want to recycle.

According to the 2022 Australasian Recycling Label Consumer Insights Report, 87 per cent of Australians believe that recycling at home is the right thing to do.

The Australian government agrees and has set ambitious targets, including a target of 70 per cent of plastic packaging being recycled or composted by 2025.

But the country is still well short of that target.

Just 16 per cent of the country’s plastic packaging was recycled or composted in 2019-20, down from 18 per cent in 2018-19.

Flatlining recycling rates since 2017 and reports of warehouse stockpiles of plastic reveal serious issues with Australia’s recycling system.

A tale of two bottlenecks

A 2018 policy shift by China to stop accepting a wide range of solid waste had major ramifications for Australia’s waste management.

The decision meant Australia was left to figure out how to recycle and reuse its own waste rather than offshoring the issue.

In effect, it meant bottlenecks were created in Australia’s recycling system, as single organisations became the sole recyclers for thousands of tonnes of waste.

When Melbourne-based recycling organisation REDcycle announced it would temporarily pause its soft plastic collection program on Wednesday, it crippled soft-plastic manufacturing across the country.

Partnered with major retailers such as Coles and Woolworths, the pausing of REDcycle’s collection means soft plastics like shopping bags, bubble wrap, cling film and food packaging are now destined for landfill.