The project is receiving support from packaging manufacturer Tetrapak and funding from the Republic of Ireland's packaging compliance scheme Repak. Under a joint council contract with the Smith Anderson paper mill, the cartons collected in Dublin will be baled and transported to Fife, Scotland for recycling.
” The inclusion of beverage cartons in the kerbside green bin collection service will give further impetus to increased recycling in the household sector in the Dublin region “
– Martin Cullen, Republic of Ireland's Environment Heritage and Local Government
The four councils – Dublin city, Fingal county, South Dublin county and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown county – provide 300,000 households with a segregated green bin to collect dry recyclables.
Irish Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government, Martin Cullen launched the initiative last week, saying: “The inclusion of beverage cartons in the kerbside green bin collection service will give further impetus to increased recycling in the household sector in the Dublin region, diverting even greater volumes of waste from landfill.”
Smith Anderson began operations at its carton recycling plant earlier this year, which has a capacity to recycle 10,000 tonnes of liquid packaging a year. The plant was built as a joint partnership between the Scottish paper recycler and the Liquid Food Container Manufacturers' Association, which represents companies such as Tetrapak.
Keith Anderson, purchasing manager at Smith Anderson, said: “The reason we built the plant was members of LFCMA were keen on creating some kind of recycling of their material in the UK.”
He said that from the whole of Ireland, the paper mill is recycling nearly 500 tonnes a year of post-consumer cartons but expects that could almost double in coming years. “The Irish have been very productive in gathering post-consumer material for recycling,” he said.
Cartons are difficult to recycle but can contain good quality paper from virgin material, which the Fife plant recycles are recycled with other types of lower quality paper into products such as envelope paper, paper bags for fast food chains and sandwich bars as well as stationary products. The Fife-based company is still looking for an outlet for the low-grade plastic and aluminium material which makes up about 30% of cartons.
Mr Anderson said that Smith Anderson and the LFCMA want to increase the number of waste cartons collected in the UK, both from packer-filler companies and local authorities.
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