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UK’s first carton recycling plant opens
September 3, 2013
UK’s first carton recycling plant opens
The UK’s recycling industry has received a major boost with the opening of the first facility capable of turning beverage cartons into usable materials. The new facility in Stainland near Halifax boasts enough capacity to recycle up to 40 percent of the cartons use in the UK each year, meaning it could recycle up to 1.25 billion cartons a year.
The plant has been developed as a joint venture between paper and packaging firm Sonoco Alcore and the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) UK, an industry group representing leading packaging manufacturers Tetra Pak, Elopak, and SIG Combibloc.
To date, beverage cartons collected by councils for recycling have been shipped overseas for processing, leading to higher recycling costs and greenhouse gas emissions. The development of domestic recycling capacity aims to reduce costs and greenhouse gas emissions ? the companies estimate it will be able to cut carbon emissions by 122 tons a year compared to the current practice of shipping cartons for recycling in Sweden.
Read more at Business Green.
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