Recycling of beverage cartons is growing in the EU and reached 48% in 2017, according to industry-wide figures. This marks the twelfth consecutive year of increased recovery for recycling. Last year, the total recovery rate reached 76%.
“ACE members have a long-standing commitment to recycling. Having very much welcomed the revised Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive and the introduction of mandatory separate collection of packaging waste, ACE is working with national beverage carton associations to support recycling performance across Europe. To this end, the members of ACE – BillerudKorsnäs, Elopak, SIG, Stora Enso and Tetra Pak – have decided to launch a new platform to coordinate the industry’s engagement in recycling across Europe. We are pleased to see that recycling of our cartons is growing each year and we are convinced that this trend will continue with the implementation of EU waste legislation and new industry initiatives,” said Annick Carpentier, ACE Director General.
The new pan-European platform will coordinate and drive EU-wide and country-specific solutions to optimise beverage carton collection and recycling. It will actively seek to establish alliances and partnerships with industry actors sharing similar needs to ensure and scale up recycling solutions. “From a life cycle perspective, recycling of beverage cartons helps reduce carbon footprint. The beverage carton industry encourages Member States to ambitiously implement EU waste legislation to provide enhanced systems for waste collection and sorting, knowing that efficient separate collection drives the recycling of beverage cartons,” concluded Carpentier.
