Are Bag in Box refill pouches kerbside recyclable?Updated 2 days ago

Koh refills use a bag-in-box format. The outer is corrugated cardboard. The inner is a plastic bladder made of polypropylene (PP), which carries the recycling identifier number 5. PP is a widely used food and packaging-grade plastic and is recyclable, but the bladder format is classified as soft plastic and needs to go through a soft-plastics recycling stream, not the standard kerbside yellow-lid bin. The bladder has a black plastic tap fitted at the bottom for dispensing. The tap is a separate component and is not currently recyclable through standard streams, so it should be removed before recycling the bladder.

Recycling a Koh bag-in-box is a four-step process. First, empty the bladder by pouring out any remaining product. Second, rinse the bladder, making several small cuts (around four) to help water flow through, and rinse until reasonably clean. A clean bladder is much more likely to be accepted at a soft-plastics collection point — heavily contaminated soft plastics can cause whole batches to be rejected. Third, remove the black plastic tap from the bottom of the bladder. The tap isn't recyclable through standard streams, so dispose of it in general waste. Fourth, deflate and fold the bladder so it fits in a soft-plastics drop-off bin, then drop it at a participating collection point. The cardboard outer can be flattened and placed in your normal kerbside paper and cardboard recycling.

Australia's soft-plastics infrastructure is currently being rebuilt after the collapse of the REDcycle scheme in November 2022. The current state is a patchwork of programs run by the Soft Plastics Taskforce (a joint Coles, Woolworths, and ALDI initiative authorised by the ACCC), plus a small number of council kerbside soft-plastics trials in Victoria, New South Wales, and South Australia. As of mid-2025, the in-store collection pilot was operational in around 107 supermarkets across NSW and Victoria, with plans to expand. Availability varies significantly by location. The simplest way to find what's accepted in your specific area is to use the Recycle Mate website, an Australian government-backed locator tool that takes a postcode and tells you what can be recycled where. If your area doesn't currently have a soft-plastics drop-off, store the cleaned bladder dry until a nearby collection becomes available rather than putting it in general waste.

Australia's soft-plastics infrastructure is currently being rebuilt after the REDcycle ended in November 2022. Availability varies by location.

If your area doesn't currently have a soft-plastics drop-off, store the cleaned bladder dry until a nearby collection becomes available, rather than putting it in general waste.