Soft plastics pick-up is GO!
As much as we try to avoid them, soft plastics have a way of insinuating their way into our lives; they package our pasta, crackers, cheese, chips, cereal, pet food, online deliveries, toys, clothes – the list is endless.
After the REDcycle soft plastics recycling scheme fell in a heap at the end of 2022 there was a collective feeling of hopelessness and helplessness as we sent our soft plastics back to landfill.
Last year I started taking my soft plastics from home to work and putting them in the Fair Food bin going to our recycler APR’s mixed soft plastics-to-oil trial in Dandenong South.
With a commercial-scale mixed soft plastics recycling plant coming online in late 2025 I wondered if Fair Food could offer a soft plastic pick-up service.
We asked Fair Food customers if this was something they wanted.
The overwhelming response was an emphatic – YES!
A meeting was called at the Fair Food warehouse to work out the details:
What would people put their soft plastics in?
How would you know which soft plastics could or couldn’t be recycled?
Would you have to clean the soft plastics first?
How would collection work?
What would it cost?
In September 2025, APR announced their commercial mixed soft plastics-to-oil pyrolysis plant was operational and we got to work on the pick-up service.
Isabelle and Liz worked on communications, designing a collection bag and finding a manufacturer to make it (it’s recycled of course).
Steph, Jesse and Robyn worked out logistics, briefed drivers and went over how they would talk customers through the new system.
When the new pick-up bags arrived at the end of March, they were tested, photographed and written up ready to go online.
Then last Friday afternoon Fair Food’s soft plastic pick-up service quietly went live.
Here’s how it works:
- Buy your Soft Plastic Pick-Up bag
- Rinse and dry your soft plastics
- Put them in the Pick-Up bag
- When your bag is full, tie it up and leave it out for your driver to collect with your next Fair Food delivery.
Bags cost $2 each, or buy a pack of 20 bags for $20, which we reckon should just about get you through a year!
This is the list of what you can and can’t recycle:
We’ll take all your soft plastics not just the ones that come with your Fair Food order.
A heads up – the compostible bags we send salad mix, baby spinach, grapes etc can’t be recycled so keep putting them in your compost.
Once we collect your soft plastics we send them to APR in Dandenong South where they go through a pyrolysis process and are transformed into 100% recyclable builders film.
You can find more info the new soft plastics pick-up service here.
Food for the Mind and Gut
Meanwhile, over at CERES in Brunswick East we love giving a shout-out to our food and gardening workshops.
Melanie Leeson is a passionate chef and campaigner for food as medicine; Mel combines her experience working as head chef at Monk Bodhi Dharma, My Goodness Organics and Pressed Juices with her own health dilemmas to deliver informative and fun workshops on food for the gut and mind that cater for intolerances, allergies and diagnosed diets.
Here’s the sample menu:
Vegan cream cheese
Oat and mesquite crackers
Beet sauerkraut
Summer chickpea salad with orange tahini
Coconut and turmeric pie
Miso puffed balls
Mel’s workshops are hands-on and always involve a lot of eating, talking and general conviviality.
Food for the Gut and Mind is on this Sunday, April 19, 10:00 am – 2:30 pm.
More info here and there’s $10 off if you use this code MINDGUTAPR$10OFF
Have a great week
Chris
