Ballarat local Julie White is environmentally-wired, and has brought down her household waste to the point her bin only goes out every 6-8 weeks.
Using the council’s soft plastics collection program, White said her family recycles more than it produces.
The program, launched in 2024, has helped the regional city keep just under 60,000 kilograms out of landfill.
What happened? The Soft Plastics Collection Program was launched to divert excess waste from household bins.
One solution: The program involved the introduction of tie-up, orange bags that soft plastics can be placed in – before being placed in the yellow-lid recycling bin.
The bags differentiate the soft plastics from typical recycling, allowing easier separation and processing.
What once was: Previously, locals were able to pick up the orange bags at only two council buildings - the Phoenix Building in central Ballarat, and the Operations and Environment Depot in Wendouree. From October, collection points for the bags have been increased to also include City of Ballarat libraries.
This includes locations in the CBD, Sebastopol and Wendouree.
What is soft plastic? Grocery brags, bread bags, cling film, pasta bags, rice bags, bubble wrap - these are all examples of soft plastics. It’s typically a lightweight, flexible material - often described as “scrunchable”.
The recycling process for these materials differs from typical cardboard, and requires a specialised approach to turn the plastics into things like manufacturing materials, shopping bags and buckets.
The local experience: White has been part of the program since it began. She heard about it through word-of-mouth while running the Ballarat Nature Stewards Program. She said she joined because of her own environmental concerns.
Now, her family only puts their normal household bin out every 6 - 8 weeks, due to the waste redirected to the orange soft plastics bag.
White works at a school slightly out of Ballarat, and said she even has colleagues storing their soft plastics to pass onto her to recycle. She said it’s also made a difference with her children.
“When one of my daughters comes home, she’s rubbish - no pun intended - at recycling” White said. “It does fill up a lot quicker, she just throws things straight in the bin. So it [the orange bag] has made a difference.”
Why does it matter? The program has diverted 55,000 kilograms of waste from landfill, the equivalent of 55 Volkswagen Beetles.
It’s been the product of just under 7,000 local households using the program to separate their waste.
A load of rubbish: Landfills, where most household rubbish finishes its life, harm the environment in a lot of ways. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is produced when organic matter - like food, plant matter, paper and cardboard - breaks down in the absence of oxygen.
Unlike organic matter, soft plastics are not able to break down naturally. Due to the chemical composition of these materials, it can take hundreds of thousands of years for them to disintegrate.
Put simply: Every piece of soft plastic ever created still exists today.
For these reasons, landfills are cited as a key factor in the warming climate, and there are more than 1,000 across Australia today.
What next? White told the Brolga programs like this help stop excessive household bin collection being the norm.
“Nothing will change unless you force people to change their habits”.
Header Image: City of Ballarat