Kent county council is to stop accepting Tetra Pak and carton packaging for recycling, as the material is becoming “increasingly difficult to recycle”.
However, the move has been slammed by the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE), which argued that the UK has “both the infrastructure and capacity” to recycle the material.
Canterbury updated residents on the changes on twitter
The council, which is the waste disposal authority for 12 district councils, put the decision down to there being “few” material recycling facilities (MRFs) in the south east, and “being bound” by reprocessing material specifications at the facilities.
Kent county council currently sends all collected recyclables to Viridor’s Crayford MRF, under a contract that was first awarded to the waste management company in 2014, and renewed in 2020.
Tetra Pak packaging, such as that used for cartons of juice and milk, can no longer be placed in recycling bins. These products must now go into general waste instead. pic.twitter.com/41jMJI6uic
— Canterbury City Council (@canterburycc) July 5, 2021
Tetra Pak packaging is most commonly used for long life milk, fruit juice, souple and ice lolly cartons.
It is comprised of wood, aluminium and plastic, which are components “not easily separated” in the recycling process.
Canterbury city council, one of the 12 authorities in Kent, reiterated on twitter that the material would not end up in landfill, and will instead be used to generate electricity.
Contamination
A full statement from Kent county council said: “There are few Material Recycling Facilities in the South East and
Kent sends all recyclables to Viridor’s Crayford MRF
Waste Authorities are bound by the reprocessing material specifications these facilities will accept. Any materials that do not meet these specifications may be treated as contamination and may incur a cost to the Waste Authority.
“The situation with reprocessing markets for cartons may change in the future in line with the Government defining its resources and waste strategy.”
ACE UK
In a statement sent to letsrecycle.com, ACE UK warned that with Defra imposing mandatory collection and sorting of cartons from 2023, Kent county council “will soon have to reverse this decision”.
ACE UK said that it will also welcome discussions with Kent county council on how to support its MRF to sort the material.
It reiterated that Tetra Pak packaging can be “easily recycled” at its dedicated facility in Yorkshire, and that “it is as easy as it’s always been”.
Discussions
An ACE UK spokesperson said: “Our facility has capacity to recycle all the beverage cartons a council can collect, and
“We would welcome discussions with Kent County Council on how we might support them and their MRF,” – ACE UK
we would welcome discussions with Kent County Council on how we might support them and their MRF, with regard to collection and sorting. We believe the best way to recycle beverage cartons is to separate them into a single waste stream and while this is an additional process for MRFs it is no more difficult than separating any other material stream.
“Collection is currently the most significant barrier to carton recycling in the UK. Under current proposals by Defra – that all local authorities in England collect and sort cartons by 2023 – councils served by Kent County Council will soon need to reverse this decision.”
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Source: letsrecycle.com Packaging
