Tetra Pak Canada, Atlantic Packaging launch aseptic package recycling

A partnership between Tetra Pak Canada Inc. (Markham, Ontario) and Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. will lead to aseptic carton recycling in Canada. Tetra Brik Aseptic cartons, known as "drink boxes," will be recycled into consumer paper products at Atlantic Packaging's mill in Scarborough, Ontario.

"[Thursday's] announcement is the culmination of many years of research and planning, resulting in a Canadian program to recycle our 100% recyclable packaging," said Paulo Nigro, president, Tetra Pak Canada.

Atlantic Packaging's retrofitted facility is now accepting Tetra Pak packaging from recycling programs in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. The recycled paperboard — which makes up 70% to 75% of a Tetra Pak package — will be used to make Atlantic's consumer paper products such as paper towel and toilet tissue. The residual materials from the packages will be shipped to a plastics processor for plastic product applications.

There are one billion Tetra Pak packages sold in Canada each year, and an estimated 100 million of these are purchased within Toronto. The city of Toronto had been waiting for a reliable end-user for the recycling of aseptic packaging in order to add Tetra Brik Aseptic cartons to the city's blue box program.

With Atlantic Packaging's capacity to recycle all of the Tetra Pak packages collected across Eastern Canada, the city of Toronto has recommended adding Tetra Pak cartons to the blue box program starting in March 2001. Before this partnership with Atlantic Packaging, Tetra Pak packages collected in recycling programs across Canada were shipped to facilities in the United States for recycling.

Currently, 56% of households in Canada have access to recycling of Tetra Brik Aseptic cartons through curbside collection and deposit programs.

Edited by Bill Noone
Managing Editor, PackagingNetwork.com