Extended producers' responsibility schemes for used beverage carton recycling

摘要

Technological advancements have given a whole new dimension to the beverage packaging industry, progressing from heavy traditional glass bottles to lighter plastic containers and now to even lighter composite beverage cartons. Beverage cartons protect freshness, flavours and nutritional qualities, enabling distribution, either at ambient temperatures or under refrigerated conditions, and thereby enabling extended shelf-lives for consumer beverages. Beverage cartons are made of, on average (by weight): 75% paperboard, a renewable material, namely wood fibre; 20% low density polyethylene, mostly to prevent leakage; and 5% aluminium as a barrier to light and oxygen. Of the two types of cartons, aseptic cartons/UHT cartons contain aluminium along with paper and polyethylene, whereas the chilled/pasteurized cartons contain only polyethylene and paper.