Whether milk, fruit juice, drinking yoghurt or water: around 10 million litres of liquid food are purchased in Austria every day. The most important criteria for packaging are protection of the food, design for recycling, convenience and practicality.
„It's not just recycling rates that determine whether packaging makes ecological sense,“ says Georg Matyk of Getränkekarton Austria, an association to which the three major beverage carton manufacturers Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG Combibloc belong. „At a time when consumers and producers are increasingly focussing on environmental friendliness, there is a need for a life cycle assessment that considers the entire life cycle of a package, from the raw material to recycling,“ says Georg Matyk, speaking to representatives of milk and fruit juice bottlers in Vienna.
Life cycle assessment: cartonboard before glass and PET
Roland Fehringer, Managing Director of c7-consult, presented the results of the study „Life cycle assessment for containers made of PET and other materials“, which was carried out by an institute on behalf of ALPLA, a company that manufactures plastic packaging solutions, in April this year.
„From an ecological point of view, the composite beverage carton is one of the best packaging solutions. In all the impact categories analysed for milk packaging - climate change, acidification (decrease in soil pH), summer smog (ground-level ozone) and water consumption - the composite carton shows ecological advantages over non-returnable glass bottles and returnable glass bottles.“ In terms of the effects on climate change, the beverage carton is ahead of disposable PET bottles, explains the author of the study.
Christoph Scharff, CEO of Altstoff Recycling Austria AG (ARA), points out the challenges posed by the EU's circular economy package: „Thanks to committed consumers, we already collect 6 out of 10 beverage cartons. However, the new EU recycling targets pose major challenges for beverage cartons in particular due to their composite materials. We need to collect even more in future, sort it better and recycle it efficiently.“
Renewable raw material-Natural cardboard
The beverage carton is a composite packaging. A typical 1-litre fresh milk carton consists on average of75 percent cardboard. The remaining 25 per cent is the closure and the plastic layers that act as an oxygen and light barrier. Only wood from responsibly managed forests is used in the production of beverage cartons worldwide. This is recognised by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) quality seal. It is internationally recognised as the most demanding standard for forest management.
Good for the environment
Beverage cartons offer many tangible advantages today. They are functional and ecologically favourable. They protect the contents and the environment. They are easy to collect and simple to recycle. In Austria, over 250,000 yellow bins are available for this purpose, and more than 1.5 million households are directly serviced by ARA - Altstoff Recycling Austria - through the collection of yellow bags. After collection, the beverage cartons are sent to the cardboard factory. Here, all layers are mechanically separated from each other. The valuable paper fibres are separated out and processed into new packaging, e.g. outer cartons.
The future of packaging
Packaging for healthy food will continue to be of great importance in the future. The requirements for environmental friendliness and functionality will continue to increase. The major beverage carton manufacturers Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG-Combibloc are aware of their social and ecological responsibility and are constantly investing in research and development. The aim is to only offer packaging that is made from 100 per cent renewable raw materials. The first beverage cartons with closures and coatings made from bio-polymers are already on the market. In addition, modern communication is necessary to effectively convey the advantages of carton packaging for beverages.
The results of the study „Life cycle assessment of fresh milk packaging“ are available at http://www.getraenkekarton.at available for download
(Source: Getränke Karton Austria)
