Environmental groups are calling for plastic waste from a failed supermarket-backed recycling scheme to be safely warehoused until it can be recycled. The Boomerang Alliance is urging Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek to stop soft plastics waste stockpiled under the failed REDcycle scheme from being dumped (The Guardian). Plastic collected and dropped by supermarket customers had been secretly stored for at least four years while the company contracted to run the scheme, REDcycle, claimed it was being distributed for recycling. The NSW Environment Protection Authority has issued clean up orders to Coles and Woolworths for 15 warehouses and storage depots after finding plastic “from the floor to the ceiling, blocking entry ways and preventing adequate ventilation”. The Victorian EPA is aware of 14 warehouses in suburban Melbourne where plastic has been stockpiled and has taken action to ensure the immediate fire risk is controlled and laws complied with. The Boomerang Alliance says the government should intervene to ensure supermarkets are required to maintain safe storage, including installing fire warning and suppression systems and employing around-the-clock security guards. The group is also calling for Plibersek to strengthen product stewardship laws to ensure the use of plastic packaging falls, launch kerbside collection for soft plastic and develop new sorting centres. | 
