A key objective for ACE Ireland is to profile and benchmark beverage cartons as a renewable, recyclable, and low carbon packaging choice. To that extent, at the outset of 2020, ACE Ireland explored opportunities around the potential roll-out of a dedicated beverage carton sorting and recycling trial in partnership with one of Ireland’s leading waste collection companies and material recovery facilities (MRFs).
A 2018 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Household Waste Characterisation study revealed that composite beverage cartons collected at kerbside in Ireland make up:
- 1.7% of mixed dry recycling (MDR).
- 0.6% of mixed residual waste (MRW).
- 0.8% (8,025 tonnes) of the total national waste profile between MDR and MRW.
An analysis of the capture rate per waste category and collection system in the same study revealed that of the 8,025 tonnes, 53 per cent was captured through MDR and 43 per cent through MRW, demonstrating a need for greater consumer awareness around the recyclability of beverage cartons. See tables below.
My Waste, Ireland’s official guide to managing waste supported by the Irish Government and operated by the offices of the three waste regions, has included beverage cartons on its list of paper and carboard items acceptable for household mixed dry recycling. Repak, the State company responsible for subsidising recycling efforts through charges levied on firms producing packaging waste has also included beverage cartons on its list of recyclable items.
Most beverage cartons placed on the Irish market end up in household waste. A 100 per cent kerbside collection system for mixed dry recycling across the country means that all Irish households have an accessible means for easily disposing mixed dry recycling items like beverage cartons.
Table 1: Kerbside collected household waste composition
Table 2: National kerbside collected household waste 2016
Challenges facing beverage carton recycling in Ireland
Irish MRFs currently categorise beverage cartons a non-target material meaning that they are capable of being recycled but are not being targeted by the collector for separation and sale. This may be because they do not have a buyer or because the materials recovery facility or reprocessor excludes it from their specification.
Beverage cartons that arrive at Irish MRFs through MDR kerbside collection are sorted as part of paper and mixed fibre streams, where they are baled and exported with other paper and mixed fibre materials. ACE Ireland emphasises that all paper-based beverage cartons should be sorted from mixed paper and card, so that they can be reprocessed in a dedicated facility which recycles all components properly like ACE’s plant in Halifax in the UK.
Establishing a beverage carton sorting trial with Clean Ireland and Forge Hill Recycling
Through engagement with Clean Ireland, one of Ireland’s largest waste management companies operating in the Mid-West and Forge Hill Recycling one of the largest MRFs in the country based in Cork, ACE Ireland ran a sorting during August and September 2020.
The key objectives of the trial were to:
- Establish recognition and awareness of best practice solutions in terms of the separation, sorting and recycling of beverage cartons from paper and fibre.
- Demonstrate the possibilities as regards the recovery of beverage cartons from co-mingled recycling streams in the existing logistical set-up of Irish MRFs.
- Highlight the opportunities dedicated beverage carton sorting offers Irish MRFs in terms of improving the quality of their paper and fibre output.
- Showcase how dedicated sorting can help drive consumer awareness of the recyclability of beverage cartons, in turn helping Ireland achieve any specific beverage carton recycling targets set out by Government, as committed to in the ‘Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy’.
- Ensure that best practice is developed by way of the trial being spread to other Irish MRFs.
Key learnings from the sorting trial
While this initial trial demonstrated that the dedicated separation and sorting of beverage cartons in Irish MRFs is possible in their current configuration, work still needs to be done to improve the quality of materials sorted and achieve a 95 per cent target material rate. This can be achieved through investment in additional sorting lines in Ireland’s MRFs and the monitoring of existing lines over time.
The trial also highlighted the financial shortfall to make the sorting of beverage cartons viable for Irish MRFs, which will need to be addressed. This can be done through increasing subsidy rates for MRFs targeting beverage cartons in household MDR and via an increased gate revenue for materials delivered to encourage MRFs to maximise capture for beverage cartons and minimise leakage to cardboard or mixed papers. Furthermore, an increase in presentation rates by households would also make a significant difference to financial viability for the MRFs to target beverage cartons. For example, increasing the capture rate from 1 per cent to 2 per cent would play a significant part in the commerciality for MRFs of adding new streams.
