Many people are talking about the installation of the new beverage carton recycling scheme being offered by Wiltshire County Council, Hills Waste Solutions, Tetra Pak Ltd., and the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment. Still, little is known about carton recycling. Here are a few items to better explain.
Beverage cartons are made up of three main materials: Paperboard (typically 70-90%); Low-density polyethylene (typically 10-25%); and Aluminium foil (about 5%, only in long life or aseptic packages).
Baled cartons are dropped into a machine called a “pulper”, which is filled with water. The cartons become “delaminate” and the whole of the cartons are turned into a grey-brown slurry. The polyethylene and aluminium foil are separated from slurry, which can be recovered to manufacture new paper products.
When recycling paper, the material’s fibres become increasingly shorter, thereby losing strength each time they are recycled, which limits the recycling to an average of five times. Because of the fibres in a carton are long, high-strength fibres, they can withstand more and reduce the amount of virgin pulp required to complete the recycling process.
Tetra Pak and its associates are in the process of developing plasma technology which will enable complete separation of the polyethylene and aluminum. The process will allow effective reuse of all three components of the original carton in the form of raw material.
Currently, Tetra Pak cartons can be recycled into a large number of diverse products, from envelopes to plasterboard liners through to high-strength paper bags.
Further information: recycleforwiltshire.com and tetrapakrecycling.co.uk.
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