Great Plastic Rescue

The Great Plastic Rescue mission

One of the main objects of the Sustainability Partnerships was to support wholesalers, retailers, businesses and not-for-profits with leftover banned single-use plastic items. Enter Great Plastic Rescue, a free voluntary rescue program, which helped businesses and organisations to send their excess stock for sorting and recycling, and providing that material a valuable second life.

The innovative program scaled beyond expectations and was able to deliver amazing results.

Collecting more than 10 million straws, forks, plastic bags and other single-use items in NSW alone, Great Plastic Rescue has now cumulatively collected and recycled more than 42 tonnes (and 16 million items), diverting a huge amount of recyclable plastic from landfill.

Then Great Plastic Rescue hit the road, travelling across the state spreading awareness of the upcoming bans. They also engaged businesses on a personal level, giving specific advice on how and where to donate excess stock. The roadshow’s media profile generated a reach of 3.16 million people, another huge contributor to the growing awareness and understanding of the single-use plastics bans.

These plastics have now found second homes, including being remanufactured into new products such as bowls and utensils made by Sydney business Put a Lid on it.

To help support the huge amount of stock donated to Great Plastic Rescue, EPA staff got involved to help unpack, sort and send clean stock for processing. Staff were able to see the process from the inside, learn more about single-use plastic products, and make a real difference in the fight against problematic plastics.

Leftover stock has been reprocessed into landscaping, construction, retail, and homewares products.