Circular Plastics Partnerships

Building demand-driven solutions for Australia’s soft plastics. Soft plastics remain one of Australia’s most challenging waste streams, mixed materials, lightweight, contaminated, costly to transport, and often without a clear end market.

As national recycling schemes have faltered, stockpiles have grown, and freight costs continue to rise, placing unsustainable pressure on the recycling industry. Close the Loop is building a more sustainable path forward.

At Close the Loop, we believe the solution lies not in collecting more waste, but in creating circular systems which focus on shared responsibility, where consumers, councils, brands, and recyclers work together to keep materials in use.

That’s why we’re prioritising partnerships with Victorian Councils for circular soft plastics recovery, which can later expand nationwide and be developed and integrated into a lighthouse model with other recyclers.

In this model, partners deliver soft plastics for recycling and, in return, commit to purchasing recycled outputs such as TonerPlas® and rFlex®. This mass-balance approach ensures transparency, market stability, and measurable environmental outcomes.

Join us in closing the loop, where what’s collected becomes what’s created. With over 25 years of product stewardship experience and proven circular products like TonerPlas®, we’re leading a new model for managing, recovering, and reusing soft plastics.

PARTNER WITH US

The Challenge

Australia generates around 360,000 tonnes of soft plastic packaging each year, yet recovery remains below 5 percent.

When recycling systems fail, these materials are either exported, stored, or landfilled, costing millions in lost resources that could be reused.

Freight and processing costs continue to rise, while the burden of recycling is too often left with collectors alone.

‍Without strong end-market demand, even the best recycling systems cannot succeed.

Our Approach:
Circular Agreements First

Close the Loop’s soft-plastics recovery framework centres on partnership and accountability, not one-way collection.

We work with local government, brand owners, and industry on Circular Agreements, simple practical, measurable collaborations that ensure recovered material flows back into new products.

Each partnership operates on a mass-balance model, where:

Partners supply soft plastics for processing.

Close the Loop converts the material into new recycled outputs (TonerPlas®, rFlex®).

Partners commit to buying back or using recycled content equivalent to their supply.

This approach keeps the system balanced, maintaining feedstock integrity, supporting local manufacturing, and delivering verified ESG outcomes.

Victorian Focus:
The Lighthouse Model

Our immediate priority is to partner with Victorian councils and local industry to develop a Lighthouse Model for circular soft-plastics recovery.

This pilot will demonstrate how councils, recyclers, and manufacturers can collaborate to collect, process, and repurpose flexible plastics at scale, ensuring every tonne collected finds a valuable second life. Once proven, this framework will expand nationally and enable other recyclers to deliver their soft-plastic materials to Close the Loop for reuse, while still accessing recycled products or credits through the same mass-balance system.

How Our Soft Plastics Recycling Process Works

Collection & Baling

Councils and industry partners collect and bale soft plastics for transport.

Processing

Materials are shredded, agglomerated, and compounded into recycled feedstock.

Product Creation

Recovered materials are used in: 

TonerPlas® – a high-performance asphalt additive improving road durability and lowering carbon emissions. 
rFlex® – a 100 percent recycled resin used to manufacture pallets, crates, bins, trolleys, and more.

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Buy-Back & Reuse

Partners reinvest recycled content into new products or infrastructure, closing the loop.

Shared Responsibility

Circularity only works when everyone plays their part. 

When councils, brand owners, and recyclers share investment in freight, processing, and buy-back, the system becomes economically and environmentally sustainable.

This collaboration also builds resilience, reducing landfill dependency, stabilising local feedstock, and ensuring that what’s collected truly becomes something new.

Because nothing is genuinely recycled until someone chooses to buy recycled content.

Sustainability Impact & Metrics

At the forefront of soft plastics recycling innovation in Australia

1,500+ km of road paved using TonerPlas® (which includes recycled soft plastics)

Multiple industry applications: furniture, packaging, construction, and infrastructure

Zero landfill policy for collected eligible soft plastics

Sustainability Benefits

Reduces soft plastic pollution and landfill reliance

Keeps plastic resources in use through closed-loop systems

Contributes to National Packaging Targets and ESG goals

Supports Net Zero and zero waste-to-landfill commitments

Who We Work With

Local Governments – seeking circular contracts for waste recovery and infrastructure projects.

Industry & Retail Brands – committed to sustainable packaging and recycled-content procurement.

Manufacturers & Recyclers – wanting to participate in the Lighthouse model or source TonerPlas® / rFlex® feedstock.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Close the Loop accept waste from households?

No, Close the Loop does not accept household waste and rubbish - that’s for your local government to handle.

Where do we receive soft plastics from?

Close the Loop accept soft plastics direct from councils as well as industry partners and retail store drop-off programs. We do not receive soft plastics direct from consumers, however we encourage the community to engage with their local councils to determine available recycling programs in their area, or check the Recycle Mate App.

Where does Close the Loop recycle soft plastics?

Close the Loop is building a network of collaborative recyclers to reduce the carbon footprint of shipping baled soft plastics. These partner recyclers sort, shred, wash and compound the mixed soft plastics into a form the Close the Loop buy back as feedstock for TonerPlas.

Why does Close the Loop use recycled soft plastics to create TonerPlas®?

Technical Perspective: The polymers in mixed soft plastics are well suited for asphalt modification because they have a low melting point and other properties that enhance the performance of bitumen.

Environmental Perspective: Flexible packaging is the fastest-growing packaging category, yet it has the lowest recycling rate. Soft plastics are not represented in the kerbside recycling stream, and approximately 450,000 tonnes are landfilled in Australia per year. TonerPlas® provides a key end market for these problematic materials and a high-value recycled content product.

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How many soft plastics does TonerPlas® use?

Every 1 km of road* paved with TonerPlas® modified asphalt uses approximately:

530,000 plastic shopping bag equivalents and
Waste toner from 12,500 printer cartridges.
Top layer wearing course of a standard two lane suburban road

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