Wellington residents will be able to drop off their soft plastic packaging from Monday 21st October at six selected Countdown and The Warehouse stores. The new collection points are Countdown Kilbirnie; Countdown Crofton Downs, Countdown Newtown and Countdown Petone; The Warehouse Lyall Bay and The Warehouse Queensgate.

Malcolm Everts, Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme Chair, is pleased to announce this latest expansion which will collect soft plastics to supply local processor Second Life Plastics in Levin.

“We know that Wellingtonians are looking forward to seeing the soft plastic recycling bins back at stores in the region. As with our re-start in Auckland and Hamilton, we have selected collection points so that we can manage and control the volume of soft plastics to match the processing capacity in the region.”

“Collections will be carried out by Earthlink - a community enterprise based in Lower Hutt which employs people who struggle to get into work due to mental health, addiction and other barriers. This supports our commitment to the environment and the community. The collected soft plastics will be sent to Second Life Plastics in Levin where they will be used in the manufacture of cable covers, garden edging and other products.”

“We are proud to fulfil the promise we made at the end of 2018 when we stopped collections that we would re-start as soon as processing capacity was available. We are re-introducing soft plastic collections in regions close to the two existing North Island processing plants. We hope that additional capacity will come on stream in other regions through investment and support from the Government’s Waste Minimisation Fund and the Provincial Growth Fund for suitable projects.”

Scheme members’ levies fund collections from stores, quality checks, baling, transport to end markets and contribute to the processing costs as well. This is different from the traditional model where the processor pays the collector/recycler for the materials.

Countdown's General Manager Corporate Affairs, Safety and Sustainability, Kiri Hannifin, says the expansion into the Wellington region is great news for both customers and team.

"Our Wellington stores, which are involved in the relaunch, are really excited about the scheme being back up and running in their area and we know our customers will be too.

Soft Plastics Recycling is something our customers ask about a lot and we're proud to be not only continuing to support this important programme, but also working with local processors, 2nd Life Plastics, who are an integral part of developing a truly circular economy for these types of packaging materials."

David Benattar, Chief Sustainability Officer for The Warehouse Group says they are excited to be extending the collection programme.

“The expansion of the Soft Plastics Recycling Scheme to our Wellington Stores comes at a time when our customers’ demand for recycling solutions has never been higher.”

Customers can check which stores are offering the service on our website store locator (recycling.kiwi.nz)

ENDS

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