Tetra Pak has signed a collaboration agreement with paper manufacturing and waste recovery company Alier for recycling polyethylene (PE) and aluminium from beverage cartons in Spain.
This partnership, which has already commenced, will continue until the end of 2025.
It aims to strengthen the recycling of PE and aluminium materials in Spain.
The companies will work together to gradually boost and consolidate PE and aluminium recycling from used beverage cartons to achieve the target of more than 15,000 tonnes recycled by 2025.
The recovered PE and aluminium waste undergoes a recycling process to get converted into pellets, which is a secondary raw material that can be repurposed for manufacturing new products and packaging across various industries.
The recycling process initially involves recovered waste to be mechanically washed, allowing disaggregation of several fractions of the waste.
It is followed by processing of waste material by an extruder machine that finally produces PE and aluminium pellets.
Tetra Pak Iberia managing director Ramiro Ortiz said: “The signing of this agreement makes us very proud because it demonstrates our mutual commitment to the circularity of materials and the benefits of collaborative innovation for its implementation.
“Thus, we take another step to respond to the European Union's objective of recycling and efficient waste management and we are increasingly closer to fulfilling our main ambition: achieving a cardboard packaging for food and beverages, made entirely from renewable or recycled materials, responsibly sourced, fully recyclable and carbon neutral.”
The collaboration will help Alier, which currently only recycles the fibre recovered from beverage cartons, to become an integrated recycler.
Alier will also make investments in local facilities to set up a mechanical recycling capability for handling PE and aluminium packaging waste.
Alier president Elisabet Alier Benages said: “We seek to expand the horizon of opportunities for rest of the agents in industry and, for this, efficient waste management is essential, as well as joining forces to achieve it in a sustainable way.”
