Carton recycling

Carton recycling

You can now recycle your paper-based drinks and liquid food cartons, such as those made by Tetra Pak, at various points within the Borough. Carton collection banks can be found at:

• Recycling Centre, Kestrel Way, Goldsworth Park Industrial Estate, Woking.
• Sainsbury´s Superstore, Redding Way, Knaphill, Woking. (recycling site located in car park)
• Waitrose Superstore, Goldsworth Park Centre, Goldsworth Park, Woking. (recycling site located in car park)
• Waitrose Superstore, Station Approach, West Byfleet, Woking. (recycling site located in car park)
• Morrison´s Superstore, 82 Goldsworth Road, Woking. (recycling site located in car park)

Each year, UK beverage carton manufacturers produce 55,000 tonnes of paper-based cartons for milk, juice, sauces and other liquid food/drinks. This equates to around 2.3kg of cartons per household which could be recycled instead of thrown in the rubbish bin.

In response, Woking Borough Council is working with Tetra Pak Ltd to establish carton collection points at key recycling points for residents to take their empty cartons to be recycled.

Once collected, the cartons can be taken away to be baled and transported to a recycling mill. They can be recycled into a number of different products, ranging from plasterboard liner to high-strength paper bags and envelopes.

Carton Recycling Process

Tetra Pak´s beverage cartons consist of three main materials:

· Paperboard (typically 70-90%)

· Low-density polyethylene (typically 10-25%)

· Aluminium foil (about 5%, only in long life or aseptic packages)

The carton recycling process is essentially quite simple. 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, breaking down the package to produce a grey-brown slurry. The aluminium foil and polyethylene are separated from the fibre, which is recovered to make new paper products.

Wood fibres become shorter and lose some strength every time they are recycled, and can only be recycled about five times. This means that there always has to be an input of virgin material into the papermaking process to maintain quality.

Due to the cartons long, high-strength fibres, they reduce the need to buy virgin pulp. In the UK, the recovered fibre is used to manufacture new high-strength products such as paper carrier bags and envelopes.

The non-fibre remainder, mainly polyethylene and a smaller amount of aluminium, have been used in other countries in a number of applications including garden furniture, playground design, roofing materials and for energy recovery in municipal incinerators and cement kilns.

Tetra Pak and its partners are also currently developing plasma technology, which enables the total separation of the polyethylene and aluminium. This permits the return of all three components of the carton to the productive chain as raw material.

For further information see http://www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk/