Page 17 - Packaging News Magazine Nov-Dec2020

November–December 2020 | www.packagingnews.com.au SUSTAINABILITY
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in. We need to start talking about minimising packaging impact to cli- mate change if we are serious about protecting our environment.
“What is important to us at Tetra Pak is that we start to understand the carbon contribution of everything we do, right back to when raw materials are sourced, through to how they’re produced, what happens in the man- ufacturing phase, what happens in the distribution phase, what happens when the consumers have the prod- uct in their hands, and what happens when they get rid of it.”
Tetra Pak sustainability director Oceania Vikas Ahuja said recycling is in some ways a simpler problem to address than bigger environmental issues like climate change.
“Recycling alone is not going to fix global warming.”
Tetra Pak has conducted lifecycle assessments in various markets over- seas. The findings of the Australasian analysis were consistent, and cartons have the least impact to climate change amongst the packs tested across categories.
But Ahuja said the results are slightly different from country to country because the energy mix var- ies, with some countries getting more energy from renewable sources.
Another difference in Australia is that recycling rates for cartons have been falling after China introduced its National Sword policy, effectively barring imports of waste.
“Cartons are sorted into mixed paper. After National Sword, the focus on specifications for mixed paper have been getting tighter and tighter; as a consequence, we’re see- ing fewer councils accepting cartons in their recycling,” Ahuja said.
“So, what we wanted to test really was with local landfilling or recy- cling rates, and how much difference does that make. The answer, was even with relatively low recycling rates – 26 per cent is the recycling rate for cartons in Australia – the car- bon footprint is still lower than all comparable forms of packaging.”
IMPORTANT FINDINGS
Pooch said something that stood out to him in the report was the environmen-
What is important to us at Tetra Pak is that we start to understand the carbon contribution of everything we do.”
– Andrew Pooch
tal impact of recycling glass bottles, aluminium cans, and plastic bottles.
“The carbon contribution of recy- cling those packages is worse, or greater than the contribution of a sin- gle-use beverage carton,” he said.
Ahuja said cartons stand out from other forms of packaging because of their material efficiency. He pointed to the Tetra Recart as an example. It is a retortable carton designed for food such as pasta sauce, and canned tomatoes.
“This carton weighs 17 grams and, a glass jar for the same pasta sauce – 400 millilitres of pasta sauce – weighs 223 grams,” Ahuja said.
“In order to get the same result, in terms of mass going to landfill, you would have to recycle the
glass jar back into a glass jar
12 times. Let’s say you throw them both out – the impact of throwing the glass jar out is 12 times worse. Materials effi- ciency is so high for a carton, and it’s really what drives its low envi- ronmental footprint.”
He also pointed out that in the lid of a glass jar, there is usually 1.5 to 2.5 grams of plastic for the seal.
“Few people think about the fact that their glass jars actually have plastic in them,” he said. “That’s almost as much plastic as a carton.”
Ahuja said the second major factor driving the high sustainability scores for cartons is the fact that most of their
BELOW: The Brownes Dairy carton made from renewable, plant-based materials.
MAIN: Tetra Pak is working with plant-based, renewable materials in its cartons.
mass – which is fibre – comes from a renewable source.
“It’s biogenic carbon, which is cycled from the atmosphere into trees, into fibre, and back through that cycle quickly. This is opposed to fossil carbon, which has a long car- bon cycle, which is what’s creating all the problems for us.”
LOCAL RECYCLING
At the moment, cartons are not recy- cled in Australia but sent to facilities overseas. However, this will change. In 2024, a ban on the export of cartons for recycling (as part of the mixed and unsorted paper and cardboard category) is to come into effect.
Both Pooch and Ahuja said Tetra Pak is negotiating establishing local recycling capacity for cartons.
“Tetra Pak works with 178 recyclers around the world at last count, and last year 50 billion cartons were recy- cled globally,” Ahuja said. “We’re very interested in getting a local recycler set up in Australia and New Zealand, and should be announcing our first investment in the coming weeks.”
Pooch said there are many prod- ucts that cartons can be recycled into, and the company is in the process of ascertaining which product, or prod- ucts, has the greatest chance of suc- cess in Australasia.
But the fact of the matter is, even if a carton finds its way to the landfill, it still has a relatively high sustain- ability quotient.
Ahuja said the carton is mostly fibre. “It’s essentially a stiff paper bag with a bit of lining in it so you can keep your milk and juice and water in it,” he said. “And that’s why Tetra Pak cartons have the potential to become the most sustainable package.” ■