Although it has yet to be launched in the US, a recycling program specifically for Tetra Pak packaging – known for their juice boxes and milk cartons – is underway in the UK and a few other regions around the world The result? Your juice packet could be recycled into your future kitchen table.
It’s true. Tetra Pak has made an active effort to designate special carton recycling areas where customers can leave their used cartons. The company then collects the cartons and reprocesses them into a hard material, which can be used to build furniture. Also, energy is released during the process, which the company reuses in its manufacturing process. Thus, the carton recycling program is energy friendly as well.
The furniture has been used in poor regions in some countries and even sold in specialty shops.
In a special program in the Philippines, the recycling program has been launched in schools and also at local NGOs. The resulting carton board, a material similar to plywood, is donated to the NGOs so they can build picture frames and other items for a home office.
The materials and process used in creating the carton furniture are safe for the environment, as there are no chemicals added during the transformation process. First the paper is removed in a pulping process, and it is also reused if the condition is good. Then the material is heated resulting in the hard board.
Currently, Tetra Pak has been collaborating on programs in various countries, offering some of their services to process the material. In the US, none of these types of programs are in place, although some regions do allow you to recycle Tetra Pak containers, they aren’t typically processed into furniture.
Perhaps if a campaign is launched to push for this type of recycling in the US, it might push political initiative. There seems to be a great deal of good to be done with the recycled material from Tetra Pak cartons. One can use it for Habitat for Humanity, building new houses for people who are victims of a natural disaster, or for furniture for low-income housing.
But the best thing of all would be the resulting lower numbers of cartons in landfills. The more we recycle, the more space we have to enjoy.
