At Aurora Early Education, we are mindful that, as we care for, connect with and create with our learners, we are helping to shape future generations. We also understand our responsibility to the environment and community; our Rowville kindergarten is involved in several initiatives to ensure that we are building a greener, healthier future for our children. These include a partnership with OzHarvest, which tackles food waste, as well as – more recently – a soft plastic recycling initiative.

The Ins and Outs of Soft Plastic

Once you know what they are, you’ll start seeing soft plastics everywhere you turn. They’re any kind of plastic that you can easily crumple into a ball; we’re talking diaper packets, wet wipes packets, plastic bags and biscuit wrappers.

While Australians are pretty careful about sorting waste into different bins for recycling, many don’t know that soft plastics can’t go into general dry, household recycling bins. At the recycling factory, these plastics get caught in machinery and hinder the clean recycling of other items.

So where should we throw them?

The REDcycle Initiative

RED Group, a Melbourne based organisation runs an initiative called ‘REDcycle’, which provides consumers with a solution for what to do with their soft plastics waste. They’ve teamed up with our favourite supermarkets including Coles and Woolworths and have installed collection bins at each store for soft plastics.

These soft plastics are taken to special processing centres run by Replas, where they are recycled to make furniture, bollards and signage.

Here at Aurora, we aim to make soft plastic recycling easier by providing cardboard boxes in each room for soft plastics. These are dropped off at the nearest recycle location and are taken to recycling plants. Through these easily implementable actions, we’re proud to play a small role in creating a cleaner, greener future.