A third of councils now collect cartons at kerbside

The trade body which represents packaging manufacturers Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG Combibloc has reported that a total of 135 out of 406 (33%) UK councils are now offering kerbside collections of the material.

Waltham Forest borough and West Oxfordshire district councilsare the latest local authorities to include the material in their respective rounds.

Richard Hands, chief executive of the Alliance for Beverage Cans and Environment UK (ACE UK), said: After significant investment in recycling from our members Tetra Pak, SIG Combibloc and Elopak the beverage carton industry has shown what can be achieved when building a nationwide recycling infrastructure from scratch, in less than four years.

The latest figure represents a 2% increase on the figure published by packaging manufacturer Tetra Pak in January 2011, when the Swedish-owned firm announced that 31% of councils were collecting drinks cartons at the kerbside (see letsrecycle.com story).

At present, drinks cartons cannot be recycled in the UK but are exported to other European countries most commonly Sweden where the paperboard and non-fibre materials are separated for use in paper-making or energy recovery.

Councils

Doubt had been cast over the beverage carton industry achieving increased levels of kerbside collections after councils voiced concerns over the sustainability of exporting material for reprocessing (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, earlier this month, Tetra Pak stated its intention to work closely with recycling and reprocessing firms in the UK to enable a greater number of councils to collect the material at the kerbside (see letsrecycle.com story).

Commenting on his councils adoption of the material, John Parkinson, interim head of street scene at West Oxfordshire district council, said: Previously residents could take these cartons to a local recycling facility, but we are pleased that they can now conveniently recycle these at home. We feel it is important to make recycling as simple as possible for our residents.

Mr Parkinson added that the local authority was able to include the material at the kerbside as part of a new collection contract let by West Oxfordshire at the end of 2010. This new arrangement included the introduction of beverage carton collections as of April 2011.