First UK beverage carton recycling plant opens

4 September 2013


The UK’s only dedicated beverage carton recycling facility was officially opened on Tuesday 3 September 2013.

Located near Halifax, West Yorkshire, in the north of England, the new plant is a joint initiative between the Alliance for Beverage Cartons & the Environment (ACE) UK – representing the leading beverage carton manufacturers Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG Combibloc – and paper and packaging producer Sonoco Alcore.

Capable of recycling up to 40% (25,000 tonnes) of the cartons manufactured each year for the UK food and drink market, it is expected to “significantly boost” UK recycling rates for beverage cartons.

Sonoco Alcore will utilise the high quality virgin wood fibres found in beverage cartons by turning them into industrial-strength coreboard at its paper mill located on the same site, for use in producing 100% recyclable tubes and cores for industrial applications.

The opening of the new Halifax plant means that beverage cartons collected by local authorities in the UK for recycling will no longer have to be transported to facilities in Europe – a change estimated to result in annual savings of 122 tonnes of transport-related CO2.

The new facility will also offer a stable price per tonne for cartons delivered.

And when running at its full capacity of 25,000 tonnes per annum, the recycling facility has the potential to reduce landfill taxes and gate fees for local authorities by £3.6 million (based on 2013 levels) – offering better value for UK council tax payers.

ACE UK chief executive Richard Hands says: “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 – we’re really excited by this development and its potential to further transform carton recycling in the UK.”

According to the companies involved in the project, the fine polymer and aluminium layers used in beverage cartons are also separated as part of the recycling process.

Several different approaches for recycling and/or recovering this fraction are currently being assessed and a UK solution will be in place in 2014, with the materials stored until that time.



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