It wasn’t good news for the environment when the only reprocessing plant dedicated to the recycling of Tetra Pak cartons in the UK was closed down this summer. But things are looking up as Tetra Pak moves into talks with a number of UK paper mills in an attempt to to reach a 10% recycling rate by 2008 in the UK. Across the globe, the goal for Tetra Pak is to reach a 25% recycling rate.
Tetra Pak produces 55,000 tonnes of cartons every year, but they are difficult to recycle because they are made from polyethylene, aluminium foil and paper fused together.
After the Fife plant’s closure, cartons are now being sent to Norway for reprocessing as a temporary measure. Collection companies have said their services have been unaffected.
Ken Orchard, managing director at Mid Devon Community Recycling, one organisation providing collections of Tetra Pak cartons, explained: “We haven’t experienced any problems. Tetra Pak tell us they are talking to four different mills at the moment, and has particular hopes for two of them. While there is this temporary blip, our collected cartons are going to Norway for reprocessing.”
However, senior paper industry sources have told letsrecycle.com it is unlikely that UK paper mills would be able to deal with large quantities of cartons because of the potential contamination.
Mr Orchard, whose community sector company collects cartons from 31,000 households, told letsrecycle.com today that the service remains very popular with householders.
“It doesn’t produce a big tonnage, so it’s not particularly good for local authority targets, but it’s a big volume out of the waste stream, so it’s very popular with householders,” he said.
“It’s led to a 5% increase in participation,” Mr Orchard claimed.www.letsrecycle.com