New food and drink carton recycling bins in the Vale
Food and drink cartons can now be recycled at five sites in the
Vale of Glamorgan thanks to a scheme run in conjunction with Tetra
Pak Ltd and the carton industry body ACE UK (Alliance for Beverage
Cartons and the Environment).
Special collection bins for cartons have been installed at the
Vale of Glamorgan Council’s household recycling centres in Sully
and Llandow and at the Tesco stores in Barry, Penarth and
Culverhouse Cross.
Tetra Pak Ltd will be responsible for emptying the bins and,
once collected, the cartons will be taken away to be baled before
being 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.
Each year, UK beverage carton manufacturers produce
approximately 55,000 tonnes of paper-based cartons for milk, juice,
sauces and other liquid foods/drinks. This equates to around 2.3kg
of cartons per household which could be recycled instead of thrown
in the rubbish bin.
Residents are reminded that Tetra Pak cartons cannot be
collected as part of the Vale Council’s kerbisde scheme. As they
need to be collected and treated separately, please only use the
special bins at the five sites.
Cllr Rob Curtis, Vale Council cabinet member for visible
services said: “I have been working for a number of years to get
tetra cartons added to the list of items which can be recycled.
Therefore, I am proud of this new initiative to help save our
fragile environment. Vale residents have always responded well to
the different recycling schemes we’ve implemented across the
county, but we’ve still got some tough targets to meet, both as a
county and as a nation. We’re delighted that Tetra Pak and the
carton industry is supporting us to help increase the number of
cartons recycled in the Vale.”
Richard Hands, Environment Manager at Tetra Pak Ltd and Chairman
of ACE UK, added: “Whilst cartons have been successfully recycled
in large volumes for many years throughout Europe, the UK has a
long way to go. It is therefore fantastic news that the Vale of
Glamorgan Council is taking a lead by adding cartons to the list of
materials collected for recycling and we very much hope that the
initiative is successful. We and our industry partners are
committed to increasing the level of carton recycling in the UK
with the aim of reaching a national network of carton collection by
the end of 2008. Our work with the Vale Council takes us and
households in the area one step closer to achieving that.”
Since April last year, the UK carton industry has made
£1.5million available to help local authorities interested in
starting up carton collection schemes in their area. There are
already approximately 100 district areas collecting cartons, which
will result in a national network of coverage during the next 18
months. The carton industry continues to work with new paper mills
to trial carton recycling to ensure the industry can cater for this
increase in carton recycling, as more areas come on board.
For more information on recycling services in the Vale, please
call 02920 673000, or e-mail visible@valeofglamorgan.gov.uk.
For more information on carton recycling, visit www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk.
Caption: Cllr Rob Curtis, Vale Council cabinet
member for visible services, and Barry resident Joan Cameron at the
newly installed recycling bank at the Tesco store in Barry