Beverage cartons are a virtuous example of the circular economy

To achieve environmental sustainability, we can only start from the beginning, from the packaging of the products we use every day, which we have in our hands every day, from the milk carton to the fruit juice brick. But to achieve the goal, starting well is not enough, the path is long and proceeds in a circular way: only in this way can the packages that are no longer needed can be collected and recycled, without ever becoming waste.

But for packages to have a second life, they need to be collected and recycled properly. Tetra Pak, a world leader in the production of food packaging, has been committed for years to ensure that its solutions are renewable and recyclable and can be transformed into new products. The Swedish company, present in Italy since 1965, is in fact working to obtain a food package, which contains an even higher percentage of paper, uses only plant-based plastics and reduces or replaces the presence of aluminum.

It is with this in mind that Tetra Pak also conceived the “Choose nature. Choose carton” campaign: in order to explain to consumers that, in order to reduce their environmental footprint and contribute to the mitigation of climate change, it is essential to always choose packaging. more sustainable, but also collect and recycle them correctly.

Tetra Pak’s commitment is therefore throughout the value chain, which is why the company has been working for years with various partners and with over 170 recyclers around the world, with co-investments aimed at improving recycling capacities and initiatives to increase recycling. In 2021 alone, Tetra Pak invested 40 million euros in awareness-raising projects on the issue of separate waste collection.

In Italy, Tetra Pak has also signed a partnership with one of the leading paper producers, the Lucart Group, for some time. For twelve years, the two companies have worked together to increase the collection and recycling of used beverage cartons and then transform them into new products. Recycling concerns both the paper component and the aluminum and plastic. A virtuous example of the circular economy: since 2013, over 7.6 billion beverage cartons have been recovered and sent for recycling, saving the equivalent of over 3.3 million trees and over 200 thousand tons of CO2. The approach to recycling is innovative. The beverage cartons are sold collected, sorted and sent to the Lucart factories where two separate and distinct processes are initiated.

Raw cellulose fibers (which make up 74 percent of beverage cartons) are used as raw material to produce Fiberpack paper that will be used by the Natural lines for hygiene; the components in aluminum and polyethylene (respectively 4 and 22 percent of the material with which the beverage carton is made) are instead transformed into Granplast, a new raw material that can be used to make various elements from the dispensers for dispensing towels and toilet paper in public toilets, pallets for the transport of goods, components for street furniture.

The one with Lucart is not the only virtuous collaboration that Tetra Pak has signed to reduce its impact on the environment as much as possible. Specifically, with regard to beverage cartons, Tetra Pak collaborates with Comieco to promote the separate collection of this specific type of packaging.

In 2003, Tetra Pak and Comieco signed a collaboration agreement that made it possible to carry on the separate collection of beverage cartons, both together with paper and cardboard, and in multi-material mode, therefore with plastic and metals.

This led to numerous collection initiatives in various Italian municipalities, supported by information campaigns aimed at citizens aimed at communicating the methods of conferring beverage cartons and more generally at promoting the separate collection of paper and cardboard.

A few numbers to take stock of the situation: in 2021 in Italy about 36% of beverage cartons were collected and sent for recycling, equivalent to about 32,000 tons of packaging. A certainly positive result, which in the coming years can reach new and ambitious goals thanks to the shared and participatory commitment of all the players in the supply chain.

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