Food packaging and processing company Tetra Pak has announced a partnership with global resource management company Veolia, with the aim of rendering all components of used beverage cartons within the European Union recyclable by 2025.
On average, beverage cartons comprise around 75% paperboard, 20% plastic and 5% aluminium foil.
While the fibres recovered during recycling are used in industrial and consumer products, the polymer and aluminium mix – PolyAl – has a different story.
The Hurdle
The recycling director of Tetra Pak, Lisa Ryden, said, “Our approach to recycling involves working with many partners along the value chain because a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
“The challenge in the EU is to achieve the economies of scale and turn PolyAl into high-value secondary materials,” Ryden added.
The partnership will enable the processing and conversion of PolyAl into raw materials that will have useful applications in the plastic industry.
'Sustainable Solution'
The senior executive vice-president for development, innovation and markets at Veolia, Laurent Auguste, said, “This partnership joins together our resource management expertise and Tetra Pak’s packaging material expertise.
“We will develop an environmentally and economically sustainable solution to recycling PolyAl – first in the EU, and then Asia – to improve the collection, technology, and processes,” Auguste added.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
