The partnership between food processing and packaging Tetra Pak and recycling operation Gayatri Paper Mills ensures the complete, environmentally responsible and friendly lifecycle of the carton from cradle to grave, as 6 000 tons of used beverage cartons per annum are destined for local reuse.

“When the contents are gone, the carton lives on,” says Rodney Reynders, environment cluster leader, sub-Sahara Africa at Tetra Pak. “The unpretentious carton pack goes largely unnoticed in consumer homes worldwide more than 400 million times a day – appreciated for it’s low carbon, low cost simplicity but unrecognised for it’s engineering excellence.”

Tetra Pak’s cartons are made even more environmentally friendly with the introduction of the recycling facility as the impact of every element of the carton’s lifespan is now considered, from responsibly managed forests to use and reinvention as a recycled product.

In addition the multilayer engineering keeps product fresh inside for up to 12 months without needing energy-sapping refrigeration. Milk and juice processing machines from Tetra Pak use the latest technology to save energy and water,while technical processing support to customers focuses on reducing productwaste during the packaging of milk and juice.

The partnership is looking for rapid annual expansion in the volume of recycled material which will be sold backinto local industry. It creates wealth from waste and sustainable local revenues.

This partnership is part of Tetra Pak’s ongoing global programme to boost recycling rates. In 2010 Tetra Pak supplied 158 billion individual packages used by food and beverage companies around the world to deliver over 74 billion litres of milk, juice, fruits and other products to consumers. Thirty two billion used cartons were recycled globally that year which eliminates more than 473 kilo tonnes of waste and provides the base material for a host of new products.

The model is based on established carton recycling businesses in Brazil and seeks to include partners from local businesses to government and entrepreneurs.

Several direct jobs have already been created by the partnership with many more knock-on jobs for balers and collectors. Tetra Pak works closely with local recycling programmes to provide an extensive base for consumers to recycle their household carton waste, both as part of suburban home collection programmes and drop off sites at schools, key retailers and some industrial drop off areas.  Lists of recycling drop off points can be found at www.tetrapak.co.za and www.mywaste.co.za.

Tetra Pak’s aseptic cartons consist mainly of renewable paper board (75%) with the remaining layers of aluminium and polyethylene (PolyAlu) making up 25% of the carton.  Both portions of the used carton waste are 100% recyclable.

Recyclables are collected across the country by waste management and private collection companies who sort them into different materials streams. Carton waste is then baled and sold on to Gayatri Paper Mills for recycling.

Gayatri employs a modified hydro-pulper, not unlike a giant, domestic blender which separates the paper board from the PolyAlu through a cold water friction process.

The baled units are fed, caps and all via an elevator, into the hydro pulper. The hydro pulper blade agitates the cold water solution and within 20 minutes the paper board has become separated from the PolyAlu portions. The pulp is pumped off into the main paper mill where it is turned into cardboard. The cardboard is then converted into boxes that are used to ship milk and juice products into stores for people to buy – a complete, closed loop product story.

The PolyAlu portion that remains is baled and sent for aggromulation into small pelletsthat can then be used to manufacture a wide range of useful products, from cellphone covers, to park benches, school desks and chairs.

 ABOUT TETRA PAK

Tetra Pak is the world’s leading food processing and packaging solutions company. Working closely with our customers and suppliers, we provide safe, innovative and environmentally sound products that each day meet the needs of hundreds of millions of people in more than 170 countries around the world.  With almost 22,000 employees based in over 85 countries, we believe in responsible industry leadership and a sustainable approach to business.  Our motto, “PROTECTS WHAT’S GOOD,” reflects our vision to make food safe and available, everywhere.

More information about Tetra Pak is available at www.tetrapak.com

The post Tetra Pak and Gayatri Paper Mills partnership bears fruit first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

World Environment Day is one of the days in the year where we receive a flood of ‘green’ messages about saving precious resources such as water and energy, buying less and recycling more and living in a sustainable way so we can ensure the health of our planet. While a number of these messages are well meaning, there are certain messages that perpetuate long-held misconceptions about the paper industry: that paper kills trees and that our paper consumption threatens rainforests.

The Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PAMSA) would like to set the record straight for the South African context with the following facts:

Paper is made from farmed trees.

• All paper in South Africa is produced from plantation-grown trees, recycled paper or bagasse (sugar cane fibre).  Plantation-grown trees are farmed for paper, just as maize is planted for cereals and wheat for bread.
• Our fibre is not sourced from the wood of rainforests, indigenous or boreal trees. This is a myth, often wrongfully perpetuated by e-mail footnotes.
• In South Africa, 600 million trees across 762,000 hectares are specifically grown for use in pulp and paper manufacture and the industry plants in excess of 260,000 trees every single day.
• The industry has made significant advances in terms of environmental sustainability over recent decades. The use of renewable biomass-based energy has enabled the industry to avoid the use of 1,3 million tons of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas annually and therefore the associated carbon emissions.

Timber plantations help fight climate change.

• Plantations are atmospheric carbon sinks which mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) and releasing oxygen through the natural process of photosynthesis.
• South Africa’s timber plantations, which cater for pulp and paper, furniture and other wood based-products, lock up 900 million tons of CO2— a key environmental service and a means of mitigating climate change. (Forestry South Africa, 2011)
• Only 9% of the total plantation area is harvested annually. This is replanted within the same year.  Only mature trees are harvested.
• Carbon absorption continues as the new trees grow and young trees are able to absorb carbon more rapidly than the older trees. These trees, and thus paper products, are a renewable resource.
• Interestingly, if it were not for the pulp and paper industry operating world-wide for the last 150 years the CO2 levels in the atmosphere would be 5% higher (about half a degree in Celsius) than they are at present. This is according to the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, Special Report on the greenhouse gas and carbon profile of the global forest products industry published in February 2007.

• South Africa has the highest level of international certification of its plantations in the world. Over 80% of South African plantations are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
• PAMSA members – Kimberly-Clark, Nampak, Mondi, Mpact and Sappi – subscribe to the FSC’s Chain of Custody which tracks FSC-certified material through the production process – from the forest to the consumer, including all successive stages of processing, transformation, manufacturing and distribution.
• Consumers should look out for paper and wood products bearing the FSC mark of certification.

Recycling is rewarding.

• An important reason for paper recycling is that it extends the period over which the carbon in the paper is locked out of the atmosphere.
• Paper recovery and recycling reduces costs to local municipal authorities and frees up space at landfill sites.
• Recycling creates jobs for many in the informal and formal sector.
• With 65% of recovered paper used as raw material in paper mills, more than half of the country’s paper mills depend on recycled fibre and a number of them use it as their only fibre source.

The post Getting the facts straight about paper first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).