I did some looking around. Apparently the paper is washed out and recycled, the plastic and metal becomes polyaluminium which is downcycled into single use products that then end up in landfill. So not ideal but not incinerated. Tetra Pak’s promo video is interesting in that regard as they show the process with the paper being recycled but conveniently forget to mention what happens to the polyaluminium. That video also says the cartons can be shredded and turned into board for construction purposes but doesn’t say how much of that ends up bring used in this way.
It definitely feels like someone needs to do more digging into this.
By my own guesstimate 95% of tetra ends up in the bin.
It’s likely 80%+ and will stay that way until councils include it in their curbside recycling collection (some do) because it is either too much hassle.for most people to take to their local tip so they stick it in non-recyclable or they see the recycle sign and lob it into that bin where it gets extracted at the recycling centre and sent to landfill or incineration. It’s the same with “recycle in store” plastic.
Found this (Indonesia)
Making the whole carton into panels or pallets definitely seems the best way to go as it is less water and energy intensive and stops the polyaluminium from eventually ending up in landfill. It’s unclear how much of it ends up on that path.
I did some looking around. Apparently the paper is washed out and recycled, the plastic and metal becomes polyaluminium which is downcycled into single use products that then end up in landfill. So not ideal but not incinerated. Tetra Pak’s promo video is interesting in that regard as they show the process with the paper being recycled but conveniently forget to mention what happens to the polyaluminium. That video also says the cartons can be shredded and turned into board for construction purposes but doesn’t say how much of that ends up bring used in this way.
It definitely feels like someone needs to do more digging into this.
By my own guesstimate 95% of tetra ends up in the bin. There is something funky going in.
Found this (Indonesia)
https://re-pal.com/recycle-over-4250-tons-of-used-beverage-cartons-and-multi-layered-plastics-to-make-50000-new-pallets/
It’s likely 80%+ and will stay that way until councils include it in their curbside recycling collection (some do) because it is either too much hassle.for most people to take to their local tip so they stick it in non-recyclable or they see the recycle sign and lob it into that bin where it gets extracted at the recycling centre and sent to landfill or incineration. It’s the same with “recycle in store” plastic.
Making the whole carton into panels or pallets definitely seems the best way to go as it is less water and energy intensive and stops the polyaluminium from eventually ending up in landfill. It’s unclear how much of it ends up on that path.
I noticed that they are trialing replacing the aluminium with a wood chip so they clearly know the writings on the wall.