On August 23, Tetra Pak released its annual sustainability report for 2022, where the Switzerland-based packaging expert justified the sudden change in material preference of retailers in packaging their products was due to sustainability issues. Tetra Pak’s report illustrates that 1.2 million tonnes of cartons were returned and circled down to recyclers worldwide in 2021, almost 26 per cent of the total cartons sold that year.
Many food and beverage producers use cartons made of aluminium and cardboard instead of plastic, which some in the industry claim is more eco-friendly.
The supermarket brand Morrisons has altered the packaging for its in-house brand milk bottles. Still, when the transformation was declared, the plastics recycling charity organisation, RECOUP gave information that plastics were in every UK kerbside collection bag. However, cartons had a 65 per cent collection rate.
Tetra Pak wishes to resurrect the system by acquiring a 90 per cent collection rate and a 70 per cent recycling rate in the European Union by 2030.
Tetra Pak is sure that many countries need “systemic change”, while “large investments” are important to enhance the infrastructure of the recyclers and the capacity of paper mills.
Tetra Pak is about to make a €40 million investment annually in the upcoming three years to constitute the ideal collection and recycling protocol “in partnership with other value chain players and recyclers.”
The company was very much appreciative of countries where local authorities and package collecting boards are already focused on recovering cartons and other liquid food packaging items throughout the nation.
In the UK, the carton industry never before had a concrete recycling scheme, nor was it widely accepted, but in recent years with the rising spree for sustainability products, used cartons are being sent to the Sonoco mill in Halifax for recycling.
The Government has introduced carton collection drives along the kerbside to make the habit more acceptable in the future. The report also states the present predicament of the cartons, which are sent to paper mills where the paper is separated from the aluminium for individual recycling processes.
The fibre or the paper is then sent for making items such as tissue paper, cardboard and office paper, while the polyethylene and aluminium travel to specialised recyclers for products such as pellets, profiles, panels, pallets, tiles and crates.
Early in 2021, Tetra Pak reviewed and changed its reporting method as a first step to ensure third-party attested recycling reports. Owing to the new technique in reporting, the company claims its original global recycling rate had risen from 25 per cent in 2020.
Somewhere in the report, Tetra Pak has also mentioned how it is aiming at reducing the plastic and aluminium content in its cartons and increasing paper’s share of today by 70 per cent so that recycling becomes an easier job, but the safety of the consumer remains intact.
Advocating for the company’s ideology towards circular solutions, Eva Gustavsson, Tetra Pak’s vice president for materials and package, commented: “To keep the innovation engine running, we are investing €100 million per year and will continue to do so over the next five to 10 years to further enhance the environmental profile of cartons, including the research and development of packages that are made with a simplified material structure and increased renewable content.
“There is a long journey ahead of us as we strive to achieve our sustainability ambitions while ensuring food safety, but with the support of our partners, we are well on our way,”, Eva Gustavsson ended her statement.
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