The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment – ACE Ireland represents Tetra Pak, Elopak, and SIG Combibloc, the leading manufacturers of beverage cartons for the Irish and European markets.
Beverage cartons are a circular, renewable and recyclable packaging solution widely used by Irish consumers as part of everyday life for many decades. They protect the freshness, flavours and nutritional qualities of both chilled and long-life food and drink products, enabling distribution at ambient temperatures or under refrigerated conditions.
Outlined below are our key asks for political parties and groupings to consider for inclusion in their election manifesto and potentially in the next programme for government.
- Increase collection and recycling rates of all recyclable materials including beverage cartons
The beverage carton industry is committed to reaching a 75% collection rate and 65% recycling rate for cartons in Europe by 2030 in line with EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation targets and the National Waste Management Plan for a Circular Economy. However, to fully understand how recyclable materials are performing and for producers, manufacturers and the wider waste management industry to adopt accordingly, there is a need for more robust and specific data on materials collected and recycled.
Based on figures published in the EPA’s Household Municipal Waste Characterisation 2022 report, ACE Ireland estimates that approximately 67% of beverage cartons are correctly collected for recycling. But with most data only accounting for broad material types, it is difficult to validate the exact quantities of different packaging types being collected and recycled.
Alongside detailed data to track collection and recycling performance, there is a need for improved public understanding of the specific materials including beverage cartons that should be placed in the mixed dry recycling bin. Ramped up, clear and sustained public messaging campaigns will be crucial to increasing overall collection and recycling rates
Our key asks:
- Drive more targeted public awareness of packaging materials that should be placed in the mixed dry recycling bin to increase overall collection and recycling rates.
- Collate and publish more detailed data on the collection and recycling of specific material formats to allow industry to monitor performance and adapt accordingly.
2. Deliver investment to improve sorting technology in materials recovery facilities, increasing recyclable material capture rates
Beverage cartons are a multilayer packaging made up of paperboard with polymer linings or a combination of polymer linings and aluminium foil. To ensure that all component materials can be fully recycled, beverage cartons should be sorted and sent to a specialist facility for recycling, rather than being recycled as part of a mixed fibre or cardboard stream.
In 2023, ACE Ireland launched a new partnership with Panda aimed at significantly improving the recycling process of cartons. As part of the collaboration, ACE Ireland funded the installation of state-of-the-art robotic sorting technology at Panda’s material recovery facility (MRF) in Ballymount, Dublin.
Using ground-breaking artificial intelligence as accurate as a human eye, this new robotic sorting technology has the capacity to identify, pick, and sort cartons in Irish MRFs into their own dedicated streams. Within the first 12 months of installation, more than five million beverage cartons were sorted at the Panda MRF and sent for full recycling at a specialised beverage carton recycling facility. This demonstrates the potential to increase carton sorting and recycling at scale if this technology was rolled out across Ireland’s wider MRF network.
Dedicated sorting of beverage cartons into a single stream significantly improves the recycling process of cartons. Not only would this improve the recycling rates of beverage cartons, but it would also reduce the proportion of non-target material entering traditional paper mills and increase the value of both carton and paper materials to MRFs.
Our key asks:
- Commit to greater investment in sorting technology in Ireland’s material recovery facility (MRF) network to improve overall recycling processes and rates.
- Ensure that national recycling infrastructure supports recyclable materials like beverage cartons to fully play their role in Ireland’s circular economy.
As an association ACE Ireland is focused on improving recycling processes and increasing recycling rates of beverage cartons placed on the Irish market, through working collaboratively with our industry partners, targeted investment, and supportive policy. The initiation of robotic sorting with Panda is proving hugely successful in showcasing how beverage cartons can and should be recycled in Ireland. It’s imperative that the next Programme for Government delivers targeted investment for our waste management sector to fully capitalise on these technology advancements and further improve recycling practices. – Mandy Kelly, ACE Ireland Chief Executive
