Last Thursday, Jo Churchill MP, a Parliamentary Under-Secretary for DEFRA, discussed in the House of Commons the possible inclusion of juice and milk cartons in the UK’s planned deposit return recycling scheme.
Alex Henriksen, Managing Director, North Europe, Tetra Pak, said, “We have consistently been calling for the inclusion of beverage cartons in the UK DRS from its launch. The limited model proposed by the Government risks confusing consumers who are used to recycling a wider range of materials via other routes, and therefore risks undermining the UK’s ambitions to create a truly circular economy and tackle climate change.”
He added, “Both real world and technical trials have proven that cartons fit well into Deposit Return Schemes, and the UK has ample capacity for the onward processing of collected cartons. In the UK cartons are collected for recycling in 93% of local authority areas – they are processed either at a dedicated carton recycling plant in Halifax, or in paper mills. The Halifax plant alone has capacity to process 40% of cartons on the UK market.”
