First UK Carton Recycling Facility Opens

08 Oct 2013 --- Beverage carton recycling is set to increase dramatically in the UK with the opening in early September of the country’s first carton recycling centre. The facility is a new initiative between the Alliance for Beverage Cartons & the Environment (ACE) UK – representing Elopak, Tetra Pak and SIG Combibloc - and Sonoco Alcore, the paper and packaging producer.

The facility is capable of recycling up to 40% (25,000 tonnes) of the cartons manufactured each year for the UK food and drink market. Whilst previously cartons were exported from the UK for recycling, the new facility is set to dramatically increase rates of juice carton recycling in the UK diverting from landfill and reducing transport carbon emissions.

The new site, near Halifax, West Yorkshire offers numerous benefits to local authorities, the kerbside collectors in the UK of beverage cartons, making it easier and more cost effective to recycle cartons.

“Elopak sees the opening of the Sonoco facility in Halifax as the most significant event in UK recycling for a long time,” comments Elopak ACE UK representative Clive Brown. “It will reduce transport distance and make the recycling of beverage cartons more cost effective. Recycling is important because it reduces the consumption of virgin materials and levels of waste. Beverage cartons are fully recyclable and made mainly from wood fibres, a naturally renewable resource. The new dedicated carton recycling facility will therefore further strengthen the environmental benefits of beverage cartons.”

FACTS

After beverage cartons have been collected, they are taken to a sorting or bulking facility. Here, they are sorted and separated to maximise recycle quality.

Beverage cartons are separated from other packaging materials before being baled and sent for reprocessing. Where beverage cartons are collected with paper, they can be separated at the sorting facility or recycled as part of a mixed fibre stream.

At the paper mill, baled cartons are dropped into a pulper, similar to a giant domestic food mixer, filled with water and pulped for around 20 minutes. This delaminates the packaging and breaks it down to produce a slurry. The aluminium foil and polyethylene liners are then separated from the fibre for recycling into new products or energy recovery.