UK Energy Saving Urges Councils to Offer More Tetra Pak Recycling Facilities

Recycling collections differ across the country with some local authorities offering a much greater range of services than others. It has come to the attention of UK Energy Saving, however, that Tetra Pak recycling is severely lacking on a nationwide basis, with only a few areas offering collection services. Other areas offer recycling banks, but many more provide no recycling facilities for these cartons whatsoever.

The UK Energy Saving website, http://www.uk-energy-saving.com, includes information on the recycling of many products including Tetra Paks. It is with concern, however, that statistics indicate that only 4% of the two billion Tetra Paks used each year in the UK are currently being recycled. So why is this? Councils are improving their recycling facilities for many products, so why not Tetra Paks? Well, there are seemingly a few reasons. Firstly, the government recycling targets are weight-based, which means that waste such as paper and glass go much further than light-weight cartons towards meeting these. In addition, there is concern from some councils about the fact that Tetra Pak recycling takes place abroad, thus providing more environmental concerns with regards to the transportation of the waste.

Tetra Pak are currently encouraging councils to offer more recycling facilities and have also been working with Tesco to provide recycling banks at some of their stores. “There are some positive moves towards offering more Tetra Pak recycling facilities”, comments Hayley Jones, Web Marketing Director for http://www.uk-energy-saving.com, “but more still needs to be done. Tetra Pak offer advice and assistance to councils, who should be taking advantage of this. Recycling facilities within the UK would undoubtedly also make a difference, and perhaps the government needs to consider the wisdom of weight-based recycling targets.” For consumers wishing to join UK Energy Saving in urging councils to increase the recycling of Tetra Paks, their Local Recycling page, http://www.uk-energy-saving.com/local_recycling.html, contains web links to many council recycling websites from where contact can be made.