School soft plastic winners announced

23 December 2021

Five schools across the Bega Valley Shire now have their own recycled plastic benches thanks to a soft plastics recycling competition run by Council’s Waste Services team.

The competition, asking people to show novel ways of dealing with soft plastics waste, gave five winners the opportunity to nominate a school to receive a REPLAS recycled plastic bench.

Nominated schools were: Lumen Christi Catholic College, Eden Marine High School, Merimbula Public School, Saint Patrick’s Primary School and Bega High School.

Council’s Waste Project Officer, Amber Gault said the response to the competition was fantastic.

“We had lots of entrants showing us how they recycle soft plastics using our free collection bags, which shows real interest in finding a solution to the problem of soft plastic waste,” Ms Gault said.

“Children from Year 1 at Lumen Christi Catholic College, for example, delved deeper into their soft plastics collection bags and asked why some soft plastics weren’t able to be recycled.

“The students wrote letters to food manufacturers and supermarkets asking them why not all soft plastics in their range were able to be dropped off at local REDcycle bins.

“This shows amazing initiative and demonstrates that young children as future leaders are grasping some of the key challenges we face today.

“We congratulate everyone who entered, and we’re thrilled to see the kids loving their new school benches that each contain thousands of plastic bags diverted from landfill.

“This competition helped people to see what happens to all those soft plastic bags, packets and wrappers after they’ve been dropped off at REDcycle bins at Coles and Woolworths stores.

“Seeing a great looking and functional piece of furniture emerge from thousands of plastic bags is really powerful, but there are also lots of other things that can be made from recycled soft plastics.

“REDcycle send the soft plastics to recycling organisations like REPLAS who turn it into functional items like benches, decking, signs, bollards and even a recycled road surface.

“Soft plastics recycling takes a major landfill item and FOGO contaminant and flips it on its head by turning it into a valuable commodity.”

You can pick up your free soft plastics collection bag at any shire library or waste transfer station, or from Council’s customer service centre in Bega.

For more information on what soft plastics you can and can’t recycle, visit the REDcycle website.

The Plastic Free FOGO project is supported through the Environmental Trust as part of the EPA's Waste Less Recycle More initiative, funded from the waste levy.