Smith Anderson's new facility can process 15,000 tonnes of drinks cartons a year. UK carton manufacturers Tetrapak and SIG Combibloc send their factory waste to the facility but there is a spare capacity of 11,000 tonnes to process post-consumer cartons, equal to an estimated 20% of cartons in the UK and Ireland waste stream.
 Ribbon cutting: (l-r)Stephen Hutt of Smith Anderson, Eliot Morley MP and Bob Jackson of LFCMA and Ellopak officially open the UK's first carton recycling facility |
The new machinery, which separates the cardboard from the aluminium foil and plastic coating, is already processing material from both local authorities and community group collecting cartons in Dublin, Angus, West Devon and Brighton.
At the launch event, Mr Morley said: “It is an achievement to set up the first beverage carton recycling plant in the UK and I would go further as to say that this is a ground-breaking step in packaging recycling in the UK.”
He added: “The mill's capacity to recycle a fifth of all milk and juice cartons sold in the UK and Ireland is an excellent starting point, and one which I will hope increase.”
The new carton recycling facility is the result of a partnership between paper recycler Smith Anderson and the Liquid Food Carton Manufacturers Association (LFCMA).
Stephen Hutt, commercial director for Smith Anderson, told letsrecycle.com: “Our objectives were quite selfish. We wanted a cheap source of material that we could get our hands on and a material no one else can touch.”
He explained that this fitted in well with the LFCMA's objectives, which was looking to improve the environmental image of beverage cartons. Although cartons are made with paper from sustained forests there was no capacity to recycle them in the UK at the end of their lives.
Jigsaw
Richard Hands, chairman of the LFCMA and environment manager at Tetrapak, said of the recycling plant: “I think that it represents perhaps the final piece of the environmental jigsaw for the carton.”
 The finished product in Smith Anderson's Fettykill paper mill |
Smith Anderson has made an arrangement to link the price it pays for the cartons to the price of OCC (old corrugated cardboard). The company collects the material from a network of eight collection hubs across the UK when enough cartons have been bulked to warrant a collection.
Although the card from the cartons is being recycled into material for paper bags and office products, no market has been found for the residual polythene and foil product.
Mr Hands said: “We haven’t forgotten the other materials, either, the polyethylene and aluminium, and I hope that we can soon announce recycling successes for those too. The signs are very promising.”
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