40% of UK councils now collect cartons at kerbside

The body -whose members include beverage carton producers Tetra Pak, SIG Combibloc and Elopak – says that 162 out of 406 councils are now collecting the material stream alongside other materials at the kerbside.

Bristol City and Bath & North East Somerset are the latest councils to introduce the service.

We are delighted that our strategy to increase kerbside collection is paying dividends, said Richard Hands, chief executive of ACE UK.

Since the beginning of 2011 the number of UK local authorities collecting cartons for recycling from the kerbside has risen from 31% to 40% and we expect this trend to continue. By comparison, only 4% of local authorities collected cartons as part of their kerbside services in 2006.

Bath & North East Somerset councillor David Dixon, cabinet member for neighbourhoods, said: Weve listened to local people who have told us they want to recycle foods and drinks cartons. Bath & North East Somerset Council is always looking at ways to extend recycling and waste reduction services to make it easier for households to help the environment and cut landfill tax charges. We are very pleased to offer this new service.

ACE UK

Since 2006, Mr Hands explained that ACE UK has invested 10 million in boosting recycling rates of cartons, which are harder to recycle than many other types of packaging because they are made up of a mixture of fused paper (accounting for around 78% of carton weight), LDPE plastic (18%) and aluminium (4%).

The money has mostly been spent on providing drinks carton bring bank services for local authorities free of charge. At present, around 50% of local authorities take advantage of this service, although this number has fallen from 60% as councils replace them with kerbside collection services.

Exported

ACE UK does not pay for kerbside collections of cartons however it offers advice to local authorities and helps to spread best practice in this area. It also offers to take bales of cartons away from councils, once sorted, free of charge.

The bales are currently exported, alongside the material from bring banks, for recycling to two European mills: Stora Enso in Barcelona and Lucart in Italy.

Here, the cartons are put into pulpers and the fibre is separated out to make new paper, while the plastic and aluminium fraction is either sent for energy recovery or recycled. The Lucart mill uses the fibre to make tissue and fruit boxes, while the plastic and aluminium is sent to another company where it is recycled into extruded plastic products. At the Barcelona mill, fibre is recovered and the aluminium and plastics are sent to a pyrolysis plant which turns the plastics into oil and gas to generate energy and recovers the aluminium for recycling.

The export of the cartons has caused controversy in the past (see letsrecycle.com story) as it is not seen as an environmentally-friendly option. ACE UK has been exploring ways to develop a UK reprocessing route.

We are committed to finding a UK outlet for this material, said Mr Hands.

Value

The cartons currently command a value, but Mr Hands said this was often offset by the transport costs. However, ACE UK is confident that the environmental and economic model will improve when a UK reprocessing route is established. He hopes this will encourage more councils to collect the material, despite financial restraints.

Increasingly local authorities are looking to add more materials to the mix and cartons are top of that list, says Mr Hands. They are saving landfill costs and landfill tax, which is a big incentive.