How New Zealand is Turning Soft Plastic Waste Into New Life

For many years New Zealanders, like people everywhere, tossed soft plastics such as bread bags, bubble wrap and chip packets into the rubbish bin because they thought they could not be recycled. That all changed with the launch of the Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme, a practical and positive way for households to make a difference.

The scheme is run by The Packaging Forum, a non‑profit organisation bringing together brands, retailers and recyclers to reduce plastic waste. Its soft plastic programme is officially accredited and funded by member companies and supported by big retailers such as Countdown and The Warehouse, which host the collection bins.

Here’s how it works: at home, you collect all clean, dry and empty soft plastic packaging that you use every day. If it scrunches up in your hand, it counts. Once you have a bundle, you take it to a designated soft plastics recycling bin at a participating supermarket or store. These bins are becoming more common around the country.

Once collected, the soft plastics are picked up by local collection partners and baled for processing. Importantly, New Zealand now has on‑shore recycling capacity for this material. Two Kiwi companies are turning soft plastics into valuable new products:

● Future Post blends the plastics with other materials to make items like plastic fence posts, garden products and parking bumpers.
● saveBOARD, based in Hamilton, blends soft plastics with other recycled fibres to create low‑carbon building boards for construction and insulation.

The scheme is still growing, with more drop‑off locations and partnerships being developed. It’s not perfect yet, and participation depends on people taking the time to collect and return their plastics rather than sending them to landfill. But the story so far shows what can be achieved when communities, retailers and industry work together.

Recycling soft plastics in New Zealand is now real, local and impactful. Every bag you take back to a store has the potential to become a useful product rather than pollution. And that sense of doing something meaningful – part of a collective effort to protect the land and sea we all love – is just as valuable.