The facility has been developed by The Alliance for Beverage Cartons & the Environment (ACE UK) – which represents carton manufacturers Tetra Pak, SIG Combibloc and Elopak – alongside packaging manufacturer Sonoco Alcore.
The 25,000 tonnes per year capacity plant will take in material from local authority collections as well as ACE UKs network of bring banks across the UK.
Sonoco Alcore is expectedto pay local authorities or contractors a rebate of about 55 for every tonne of drinks carton received at the site and is offering long-term arrangements to local authorities. The price is expected to vary dependent on where the material is being collected from although the company declined to provide further details.
Stable price
However, Sonoco Alcore did claim that the plant will help to increase the recycling of beverage cartons in the UK as it will offer councils a “stable price” per tonne for cartons which are collected, rather than being subject to price fluctuations on the international market.
A previous plant aiming to recycle the material failed, partly because of a shortage of cartons and the processing cost. With the UK still a country where plastic containers are used for a variety of drinks, the plant is seen as needing to secure large volumes of material and price paid will be a factor. Some waste management companies have told letsrecycle.com that pricing will be “crucial” to cover sorting costs for cartons.
Lord de Mauley
Opening the plant this morning (September 3), Lord de Mauley said: “Dealing with waste and recycling properly is not only good for the environment but can boost economic growth and create jobs.
“This new recycling plant is an exciting development and I’m delighted to see businesses working together to improve our ability to recycle more here in the UK. There is a huge global market for waste and recycling and I want to see UK businesses leading the way on this and helping us compete in the global race.”
Paperboard
Material reprocessed at the Halifax plant will be used to produce paperboard layers in consumer and industrial products such as cling film tubes and cores for rolls of textiles.
Beverage cartons are made up of around 75% cardboard, 21% polyethylene and 4% aluminium. Equipment to separate each fraction of the beverage cartons has been installed, where the cardboard fibre element will then be reprocessed.
A recycling solution for the polythene and aluminium elements is currently being developed, with the material due to be stored rather than being landfilled or incinerated until this is finalised.
Domestic market
Richard Hands, chief executive ACE UK, said: “The ultimate aim of our members Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG Combibloc is to meet the requirements of retailers, manufacturers and consumers for packaging that is easy to recycle. Kerbside recycling schemes provide the most convenient collection method for consumers and we expect more cartons to be collected in this way now that local authorities have a secure domestic market for this material stream.
“While we have already made great progress the number of local authorities collecting cartons at the kerbside has increased more than ten-fold in the last six years were really excited by this development and its potential to further transform carton recycling in the UK.”
No UK-based reprocessing facility has existed for beverage cartons since the closure of the Smith Anderson paper mill in Fife, Scotland in 2006. Instead, material has had to be exported to countries in Europe primarily Sweden and Italy.
High-quality
Adam Wood, vice president industrial converting Europe, Sonoco Alcore, said: Sonoco Alcore will use the high-quality fibres from collected cartons to produce paperboard. This paperboard is used to manufacture our tubes and cores, which are also recyclable. The new carton recycling facility is capable of producing enough material each year for 15,500 tonnes of new coreboard, enough to make 17.8 million average-sized cores and provide a consistently secure supply of material for our Company.
Related links
In May, ACE UK revealed that as many as half of the UKs 406 waste collection authorities are collecting beverage cartons at the kerbside.
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