Soft plastics recycling

Soft plastics are plastic materials that can be easily scrunched in your hand. They include items such as:

YES - accepted soft plastics:

• Clean bags and packaging (e.g. grocery and shopping, bread, frozen food, chips, pasta and rice, cereal)
• Reusable ‘eco’ bags (made from soft plastic, not fabric)
• Netted produce bags (e.g. orange, lemon and onion bags – no metal rings or ties)
• Pet food and potting mix bags (both soft plastic and woven types)
• Nappy wipes packets (with the hard /rigid plastic removed)
• Rinsed yoghurt/baby food pouches (no need to cut off the spout)
• Miscellaneous packaging (e.g. mail satchels, zip-lock bags, cling wrap, bubble wrap, PE foam sheets and furniture wrap)

NO - not accepted:

• Rigid or crinkly plastics (e.g. meat trays, berry containers – these go in your yellow lid recycling bin)
• Fruit stickers
• Foiled sachets (e.g. flavour sachets, foil coffee bags)
• Balloons and streamers (foil or rubber)
• Compostable or biodegradable bags
• Heavily soiled plastics (food or other materials stuck to the soft plastics)
• Fabric reusable shopping bags (that are not plastic)
• Pool inflatables
• Vinyl packaging (e.g. from sheets or doonas)
• Nylon items (e.g. tents, shower curtains)
• Latex items (disposable rubber gloves, elastic bands)
• Plastic strapping or fishing line
• Blister packs and tablet packaging – these are accepted at participating Pharma Cycle locations
• Non-plastics (e.g. glass, paper, organics, metal)

For more comprehensive information on what to do with your waste, check out our A to Z waste and recycling guide.

Soft plastics can take hundreds of years to break down in landfill and often end up in our oceans, harming wildlife.

Recycling soft plastics helps reduce this waste, protects the environment and turns rubbish into useful things like roads and furniture.

Recycling isn’t the full solution – soft plastics can only be recycled a limited number of times, sometimes only once.

The best way to help is by using less plastic in the first place. For the soft plastics you can’t avoid, this free recycling service is here to help.

All Brimbank residents can drop off their household soft plastics at the Resource Recovery Centre.

This service is for residential waste only. It's not available for businesses or commercial quantities.

To make drop-off easier for you and our recycling partners, please collect your soft plastics in one bag. This makes drop-off quick and tidy. It also helps stop lightweight plastics from blowing away during transport.

Then, bring the bag to the Resource Recovery Centre.

Here are some step-by step instructions:

• Scrunch all soft plastics into a larger soft plastic bag, such as a bread bag or frozen veggie bag. Remove as much air as possible.
• If you have several smaller compacted bags, tie them off and place in larger plastic rubbish bag for drop off.
• Keep the bag somewhere handy in your kitchen or laundry until it’s full.
• Make sure all soft plastics are clean and dry (a quick rinse and dry if needed).
• Store your soft plastics somewhere dry and protected from the weather. Moisture affects recyclability and may lead to rejection.
• Once full, tie the bag and bring it to the Resource Recovery Centre during opening hours.
• When dropping off, empty your soft plastics bag into the clear plastic collection unit. This helps identify any unacceptable materials that affect recycling.

Want to take it a step further? Wholly Shrink is a handy tool that helps you compact soft plastics to save space and stay organised before drop-off.

Bring your soft plastics to:

Brimbank Resource Recovery Centre
Stadium Drive, Keilor Park VIC 3042

Opening hours:
Monday to Friday: 9am - 4pm
Saturday: 9am - 1pm
Public holidays: 9am - 1pm

Residential waste only. No trailer loads or commercial quantities.

No. Soft plastics are currently only accepted at the Resource Recovery Centre.

Soft plastics from Brimbank’s Resource Recovery Centre go to Close the Loop (CtL). This Australian company transforms waste into useful products like construction materials, street furniture, shopping trolleys and engineered asphalt additive – a special ingredient used to make stronger, longer-lasting roads.

This is part of a special agreement – called a circular contract – between Brimbank City Council and Close the Loop. It is the first project of its kind in metropolitan Melbourne. It guarantees that soft plastics are collected, recycled and reused in local projects.

One of the first achievements of this partnership was using recycled soft plastics to help build three roads in Brimbank.

By dropping off your soft plastics, you're not just cutting waste and helping the environment. You're also helping Brimbank build local circular economy solutions.