Auckland Council have recently launched their Recycle Right campaign, which aims to educate the community on what can and cannot be recycled. 

You can recycle plastic, glass, metal, and cardboard packaging containers. Only grocery packaging and paper and cardboard from home is recyclable.

However, when it comes to soft plastics, it's not quite so straightforward. Plastic bags and other soft plastics cannot be placed into home recycling bins, as they get caught in machinery at the sorting facility. So, if we don't want them to end up in landfill, what other options do we have?

Leigh local Lily Walkington took the initiative and set up a community station where members of the public can drop off their soft plastics and they are then taken to be recycled at Silverdale or Albany. Since setting up the collection by the hall in December, they have collected and diverted over 100kg of soft plastic: a huge effort. 

Soft plastic refers to grocery bags, bread bags, bubble wrap, plastic wrappers of products such as biscuits, chips: anything you buy that has a soft plastic sheath.

Although having the option to recycle soft plastics in New Zealand is fantastic and does help reduce plastics in the environment, it is not the solution. The best way to help is to actually change what you buy. Even if we try our best, not everything gets recycled; New Zealand just doesn't have the infrastructure.

Plastic Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people become part of the solution to plastic pollution so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and communities. Will you be part of Plastic Free July by choosing to refuse single-use plastics?