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 the yellow bin and should only go in the red bin or the soft plastic takeback bins(external link). 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 takeback scheme returned to Christchurch on 15 February 2021.
For information and locations, please visit the Soft Plastic Recycling website(external link).