Increasing carton recycling

Despite a significant increase in the number of households in the UK that have access to beverage carton recycling, ACE UK aims to increase collections further – not only from households, but also from on-the-go channels such as aeroplane journeys or on-street recycling, as well as catering establishments and prisons.

The ACE UK recycling team works in close partnership with all waste stakeholders, from local authorities and waste management companies to Government agencies and retailers.

Our main collection partners are local authorities, of which there are over 400 in the UK with responsibility for collecting waste. Each collect different recyclable materials using different methods, although there is some common infrastructure, which gives us a preferred collection hierarchy. Our aim is to have as many local authorities as possible operating at the highest levels of the hierarchy.
We are seeing good results. In 2006 only 4% of local authorities collected cartons as part of their kerbside service. By the end of 2012, we aim for 45% coverage at kerbside. 
 


Until local authorities are in a position to collect cartons from the kerbside, we provide them with a fully-funded and fully-serviced bring bank system, with carton banks located in supermarket car parks, civic amenity sites and other collection points. This is a good interim measure, but our aim is to make it as easy as possible for  all householders to recycle their cartons by helping local authorities move to kerbside collection as soon as possible.
 


The carton hierarchy is used to prioritise which local authorities are most likely to be able to switch, and ensures that the time and resources of the ACE UK recycling team are used most effectively. This information, therefore, guides ACE UK’s ‘Cartons at Kerbside Strategy’.

ACE UK cartons at kerbside strategy

ACE UK has a six-step strategy to increasing kerbside collection of beverage cartons:

The recycling team has been working to the strategy since 2007, delivering real results. 
ACE UK’s next significant project, at Step 5 of the strategy, is to establish a beverage carton reprocessing plant in the UK, thus removing the need to transport material to paper mills in mainland-Europe for recycling into new products.
 


As with collection, we place an emphasis on working collaboratively with others, including paper and board manufacturers and recycling technology companies, and we actively seek partnerships and joint ventures.
UK-based processing will reduce costs and significantly improve the carton recycling business case. This in turn will help us to ensure that even more UK consumers can recycle their cartons.