New Beverage Carton Scheme Recycling Scheme is first for Purbeck District Council

Purbeck District Council, in conjunction with Tetra Pak Ltd and the carton industry body ACE UK (Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment), is launching a three-year trial scheme this week for the collection and recycling of beverage cartons in Purbeck, giving residents the opportunity to recycle more of their household rubbish.

Every year, UK beverage carton manufacturers produce approximately 60,000 tonnes of paper-based cartons for milk, juices and even wine.  That’s  around 2.3kg of cartons per household* which could be recycled instead of thrown in the bin.   Purbeck is now working with the carton industry to establish carton collection points at key residents’ recycling centres.

Although cartons still cannot be placed in household recycling bins in Purbeck, the new project means that used cartons can be placed in special orange-coloured recycling collection bins (taking paper-based cartons only) in the following locations:

Swanage North Beach Car Park; The D’Urberville Hall in  Wool; Bere Regis Car Park; The Upton Oil Site at Blandford Road North in Upton; and Purbeck District Council Offices in Wareham (the Wareham bank will be arriving in a few weeks). 

Once collected, the cartons are taken away to be recycled into various products, ranging from plasterboard liner to high-strength paper bags and envelopes.

Councillor Paul Johns, Waste Management Adviser for Purbeck,  said: “The residents of Purbeck have always responded well to the recycling schemes we’ve implemented, but we’ve still got tough targets to meet, locally and nationally.  We’re delighted that Tetra Pak and the carton industry are supporting us to increase carton recycling in Purbeck.  If the three year trial is successful, we’d like to see the project rolled out further.”

Richard Hands, Environment Manager at Tetra Pak Ltd and Chairman of ACE UK, added: “Whilst large volumes of cartons have been successfully recycled for many years in Europe, the UK still has a long way to go.  It’s therefore fantastic news that Purbeck District Council is taking a lead by adding cartons to its materials collected for recycling.  We, and our industry partners, are committed to increasing the level of carton recycling in the UK and aim to have a national collection network by the end of 2008.  Our work with Purbeck brings that one step closer.”

Since April last year, the UK carton industry has made £1.5million available to help local authorities interested in developing carton collection schemes.  There are over 300 districts already collecting cartons, which will result in a national network of coverage during the next 18 months. The carton industry continues to work with new paper mills to trial carton recycling to ensure the industry can cater for this increase in recycling.

Versatile milk and juice cartons can be transformed (external link) into all sorts, from ten pin bowls and puppets, to mobiles and garlands.

Please remember: wash and squash your carton before recycling and only put paper-based liquid food and drinks cartons in the recycling bins, unless otherwise specified on the bin.  No plastic, card, cans, glass, plastic bags or foil.

Contact:

Helpline 01929 557279  

email: envservices@purbeck-dc.gov.uk

Links:

Recycling

Tetra Pak Recycling (external link)

Re-using cartons (external link)

* It is estimated that 54 cartons are used per person per annum in the UK, representing over 200 cartons a year for a typical family of four.