Penrith City Council has partnered with RecycleSmart to provide Penrith residents with a trial contactless pickup collection service for soft plastics, clothing and other textile waste which will commence on Monday 18 October 2021.
The trial pickup service is available to all residents in the Penrith local government area and aims to provide a convenient solution to disposing of tricky-to-recycle items.
Council is supporting residents to make the best use of the service by providing education on how to identify soft plastics via Council’s Facebook page, Waste Champion App, Our Place newsletter and through direct mail.
Identification tools include explanations of how to do the “scrunch test” and how to correctly use the Australasian Recycling Label (ARL).
A list of common household soft plastic items is also provided as a quick and easy reference on Council’s website at penrith.city/problemwaste and the Waste Champion App.
Penrith Mayor and Sustainability Champion Karen McKeown OAM praised the trial partnership for providing residents with a contactless and convenient way to manage soft plastics, clothing and other textile waste during lockdown.
“Penrith Council has been working hard to understand and respond to residents’ concerns around waste during lockdown. The trial partnership with RecycleSmart is just one of the ways we can assist residents manage the variety of waste during this time,” said Cr McKeown.
“Penrith residents are already champions at sorting their waste, especially when you consider that we were the first NSW metro Council to introduce the green-lidded FOGO bin over 12 years ago.
“We encourage our community to go one step further by sorting soft plastics, clothing and textile waste out of their household bins.
“By using this service, residents are saving space in their red-lidded residual bin, which is good news as it’s this bin that residents would need to use for their soft plastics, clothing and textile waste as these items can’t be recycled in the yellow-lidded bin.
“Making sure these items are sent to the right place helps protect our environment while also ensuring valuable resources can be recovered and reused,” she said.
Booking a RecycleSmart “Power Pickup” is easy. Residents are encouraged to book a Power Pickup via the RecycleSmart app or website, place their soft plastic, clothing and textile waste items in a standard sized shopping bag and set their bagged items out the front of their house the morning of their scheduled collection to be picked up.
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hopping bags will be returned directly after collection.
To find out more information and book a RecycleSmart Power Pick up, visit
To follow Council’s soft plastics educational posts on social media, visit
