What happens to used Tetra-pak cartons?
If you live in an area where household rubbish is separated for recycling, your used Tetra-pak cartons will be transported to a recycling plant. There, they will be soaked in water to separate the paperboard from the plastic and aluminium layers. The paper content can then be turned into new products like toilet paper, tissue and notebooks. The plastic and aluminium can also be recovered to make things like roof tiles or plastic pots.
Energy recovery
Recycling is not the only way to dispose of old cartons responsibly. They can also be incinerated and the energy recovered to generate heat and electricity. Some countries, such as Denmark, have decided to handle rubbish in this way. In Europe in 2007, 33% of all drink cartons were used to generate energy.
Progress in recycling
Billions of Tetra Pak cartons were recycled globally. All together over the last seven years, we have seen a 73% increase in recycling. Some of them are empty bottles recycled directly. Some are overdue Tetra-pak bottle on the line. They use a dewatering machine to dewater the beverage in the bottles and compress them.