Tetra Pak cartons no longer accepted in local recycling
Date published: 17 July 2018
Tetra Pak drinks cartons like these will no longer be accepted for local recycling
UPDATE DECEMBER 2018
Read more: Tetra Pak cartons re-accepted in paper recyclingPublished: 16 December 2018
Tetra Pak cartons will no longer be accepted in local recycling meaning residents will have to throw the cartons in their general waste bins.
The move is a shocking step backwards considering eco-conscious residents are urged to recycle more and more.
Rochdale Borough Council’s director of neighbourhoods Mark Widdup said: “Unfortunately, there have been changes in the international cardboard recycling market, including the introduction of stricter quality standards, which mean we have to remove food and drink cartons (Tetra Pak) from our list of things we accept in paper and card recycling bins in Greater Manchester.
“This will be phased in over a number of months alongside guidance for residents, but people should place food and drink cartons and paper cups in their general waste bins.”
Rochdale Online asked if separate banks could be installed, such as ones used by The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) UK, which sends cartons and plastic-lined paper cups to a specialist recycling facility in Halifax.
A spokesperson for Greater Manchester Combined Authority said: “Food and drink cartons were collected in the paper and card recycling bin in Greater Manchester. It would have required mechanical sorting to separate out the food and drink cartons from the collected paper and card.
“There is not a suitable processing plant available in Greater Manchester to do this. The scheme you refer to collects the cartons via a series of separate bring bank collection points meaning that they are already separated.
“In order to replicate this arrangement for household collections would require additional collection services to be provided at an increased cost. Implementing a scheme like this across Greater Manchester would increase collection costs and require additional infrastructure to collect the cartons and deliver them to the plant in Halifax. This is not a viable option at this time.”
Many single-use plastic items are also not recycled at a local level, with only plastic bottles being recycled in Rochdale.
UPDATE: From December 2018, Tetra Pak cartons can be recycled again through the blue paper bin:
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