All soft plastics must go in your red bin, that’s any plastic you can scrunch in your hand.
Common soft plastic items include:
- plastic shopping bags
- bread, pasta, and rice bags
- frozen food bags
- courier bags
- bubble wrap and plastic furniture wrapping
- plastic wrappers for confectionery, muesli bars, and biscuits
- cereal liners
- pallet fire bags
If you're unsure, you can search for specific items on our Wheelie Bins app.
Why you can't put soft plastic in the yellow bin
Soft plastics can’t be recycled in Christchurch. When soft plastic gets mixed up with recycling it can mean the whole truckload ends up in landfill, here’s why:
- Our processing plant can only handle clean and topless plastics bottles and containers.
- Soft plastics can get caught in the sorting machine, causing breakdowns.
- When they get caught up with accepted recyclable products it can stop them from being sold and recycled.
Soft plastic recycling scheme
The Soft Plastic Recycling programme is no longer operating in the South Island. All soft plastics must go in your rubbish bin.
For more details, please visit the Soft Plastic Recycling website(external link).