COTA SA's Climate Change Group is passionate about the actions that individuals can take, big or small, that helps to care for the planet. One of these actions is sharing stories and finding reliable sources of information that are balanced and easy to understand. Our Climate Change Group members will share stories and information that they find useful with the hope that you will find it useful too! COTA SA members have previously mentioned an interest in learning more about recycling and doing their bit to help the environment so today our Climate Change Group is sharing information on the options for recycling plastics.

• Hard Plastics: Hard plastic items such as containers, butter and margarine tubs, juice and cordial bottles, milk cartons, flower pots and trays, ice cream and yoghurt tubs, and more can be placed in your yellow recycling bin. If in doubt, look at the code on the plastic item and refer to this handy list on the Which Bin website to confirm whether it can go in your yellow bin.
• Soft Plastics: Soon, it should be widely possible to again recycle soft plastics such as bread bags, frozen food bags and similar, a $40 million facility is currently being built at Kilburn and should be ready around July 2026. In the meantime, Woolworths stores across Metropolitan Adelaide now have dedicated recycling bins for soft plastics located at the front of participating stores - more information here. In addition there is a pilot scheme with three councils (Cities of Adelaide, Charles Sturt, and Port Adelaide Enfield) currently trialing kerbside collection with registered households.
• Compostable bags: COTA SA members have also enquired about compostable plastic bags: "Are they really compostable or do they also break down to tiny plastic particles which get into ecosystems." The answer is, compostable bages are made of natural starch and not plastic. Eastwaste (one of the major rubbish collection services used by Councils) has advised us to check the Australian Standard which is printed on each compostable bag. If the bag has AS 4736 or AS 5810 printed on it you can put it in your green bin and it will be broken down into usable compost, soil and mulch at a commercial composting facility. If the bag has AS 5810 printed on it, it can be composted in both your green bin and your home compost heap.
• Blister packs: In Australia alone, hundreds of millions of blister packs end up in landfill each year. Fortunately, there are recent moves to fix this situation. Pharmacycle, based interstate, is now shredding blister packs, grinding them, and separating the components for recycling. The high value of aluminium makes it worthwhile. Many pharmacies in South Australia have recycling boxes in which you can drop off any used blister packs. Pharmacycle is also encouraging purchasers of tablets to have a chat with their pharmacist if they don’t offer this recycling service and tell them that you want to be able to recycle your used blister packs at their store.

The Which Bin website is a wealth of useful information around what can be recycled or composted and how.

If you have questions, or want to chat about this topic, contact the COTA SA Climate Change Group via the COTA SA reception on 08 8232 0422 or email cotasa@cotasa.org.au.