Some examples of cartons that can be recycled
You can now recycle your paper-based drinks and liquid food cartons, such as those made by Tetra Pak, at various points within the city. Carton collection banks can be found at:
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Booth Street Car Park, Felling.
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Co-op Car Park, High Street, Wrekenton.
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Harraton Terrace Car Park, Birtley.
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ASDA Car Park, Gibside Way, Metro Retail Park, Gateshead.
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Ryton Rugby Club Car Park, Main Road Barmoor, Ryton.
Each year, UK beverage carton manufacturers produce 55,000 tonnes of paper-based cartons for milk, juice, sauces and other liquid food/drinks. This equates to around 2.3kg of cartons per household which could be recycled instead of thrown in the rubbish bin.
In response, Gateshead Council is working with Tetra Pak and the carton industry body ACE UK (Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment) to establish carton collection points at key recycling points for residents to take their empty cartons to be recycled.
Once collected, the cartons can be taken away to be baled, transported to a recycling mill. They can be recycled into a number of different products, ranging from plasterboard liner to high-strength paper bags and envelopes.
For more information visit www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk|.
Carton Recycling Process
Beverage cartons consist of up to three main materials:
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Paperboard (typically 70-90%)
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Low-density polyethylene (typically 10-25%)
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Aluminium foil (about 5%, only in long life or aseptic packages)
The carton recycling process is essentially quite simple. Baled cartons are dropped into a pulper, similar to a giant domestic food mixer, filled with water and pulped for around 20 minutes. This delaminates the packaging, breaking down the package to produce a grey-brown slurry. The aluminium foil and polyethylene are separated from the fibre, which is recovered to make new paper products.
Wood fibres become shorter and lose some strength every time they are recycled, and can only be recycled about five times. This means that there always has to be an input of virgin material into the papermaking process to maintain quality.
Because of cartons’ long, high-strength fibres, they reduce the need to buy virgin pulp. In the UK, the recovered fibre is used to manufacture new high-strength products such as paper carrier bags and envelopes.
The non-fibre remainder, mainly polyethylene and a smaller amount of aluminium, have been used in other countries in a number of applications including garden furniture, playground design, roofing materials and for energy recovery in municipal incinerators and cement kilns.
Tetra Pak and its partners are also currently developing plasma technology which enables the total separation of the polyethylene and aluminium. This permits the return of all three components of the carton to the productive chain as raw material.