This milestone represents a 12-fold increase on 2006 levels and follows sustained, close cooperation between ACE UK and its members – Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG Combibloc – and local authorities and consumer groups.
When ACE UK’s own bring-bank system is included, 89% of local authorities collect cartons for recycling.
A further boost is expected later this year with the opening of the UK’s only beverage carton reprocessing facility at the Sonoco Alcore paper mill near Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Capable of recycling 25,000 tonnes of cartons sorted from household and commercial waste streams, the facility will offer a range of benefits to local authorities and their waste management contractors, not least the assurance of a non-export market for this material stream.
In fact, cartons collected in 187 local authority areas are already set to come to the new plant for recycling. (From kerbside collecting Local Authorities and through ACE UK’s own bring bank scheme.)
“In the year that the UK’s only dedicated recycling facility for cartons is scheduled to open, we are extremely pleased that our strategy to increase kerbside collection and make it easier for residents to recycle cartons is also paying dividends”, said Richard Hands, chief executive of ACE UK.”
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