Woolies Rolls Out A Huge Change To 700 Stores

Woolworths Relaunches Major Soft Plastic Recycling Program Across Hundreds of Stores.

Woolworths has resumed large-scale soft plastic recycling, with collection bins now available at 700 supermarkets across five Australian states following a multi-year suspension of the program.

The broader rollout comes after a successful pilot launched in five Victorian stores in February 2024 and has now expanded to selected locations in South Australia.

The initiative has received strong support online, with many shoppers praising the return of the recycling program as “brilliant” and long overdue.

According to the retailer, customers have returned an estimated 40 million pieces of soft plastic since the trial began — equivalent to around 310,000 kilograms.

The collected material is being repurposed into practical products, including wall panelling used in stores and packaging containing recycled content, such as Woolworths’ home-brand bread bags, which now include 30% recycled plastic.

The restart sits within a broader effort led by Soft Plastics Stewardship Australia, which includes brands such as Mars, Nestlé and McCormick Foods, to rebuild local recycling pathways after previous schemes collapsed.

Woolworths 360 managing director Rob McCartney said customers had been clear they wanted soft‑plastic recycling back, and the retailer was working with local partners to scale capacity.

“Our customers have continued to advocate for soft plastic recycling,” he said.

“We are proud to partner with innovative recyclers such as iQRenew, which has opened a new facility in NSW that has the capacity to process 14,000 tonnes per year of soft plastics.

“While saveBOARD is transforming soft plastic waste into building materials that we are already using in 170 stores.”

Experts caution that soft plastics present unique hurdles: unlike rigid plastics, films and wrappers usually withstand only one or two recycling cycles before degrading, limiting their use in the same form.

Keeping the system viable demands careful sorting, strong quality control and continued investment in processing.

The stakes are significant.

Soft plastics make up an estimated 538,000 tonnes of Australia’s annual plastic waste, and without reliable recycling programs much of it ends up in landfill, undermining circular economy goals.

A list of participating stores is available on Woolworths’ website.