Page 3 - BEST PRACTICES_ENVIRONMENTAL

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Description

Beverage carton producers and their suppliers operate paper recycling processes which separate the
paperboard from the carton’s polymer and aluminium layers, enabling the high-quality fibre in the
paperboard to be used for new products.

The polymer and aluminium contents are also in high demand for industrial applications, either
separated or agglomerated (e.g. as roofing tiles, construction pan¬els). There are many recycling
technologies available for this, and more technological alternatives are rapidly being developed.

The industry is determined to further develop recycling through innovation in recycling technologies
and through quality improvements of recycling (including extracting polymers and aluminium). Given
that collection is a pre-requisite to recycling, in some cases the beverage carton industry supports the
separate collection of bever¬age cartons. The recycling rate of beverage cartons should increase thanks
to new EU waste legislation and the require¬ment to collect separately all packaging materials.

The beverage carton industry’s newly formed recycling platform will also contribute to this effort by
better coordinating and sup¬porting the recycling of beverage cartons in Europe.

Major achievements

On top of being recyclable, the beverage carton has two additional environmental benefits:

- Its main raw material, wood fibre, is renewable, as it is sourced from responsibly managed forests,
found mainly in the Nordic countries of Sweden and Finland

- As a form of packaging, cartons have one of the lowest carbon footprints in their core categories of
milk and juice