Recycling
Food and drink cartons are fully recyclable. Following significant investment from our members and our work with Local Authorities and others, the overwhelming majority of UK Local Authorities now recycle food and drink cartons, either through household kerbside collections or ACE UK’s own bring bank network. The Government has also confirmed that cartons will be included in the core list of recyclable materials that all English Local Authorities must collect from households at the kerbside starting from 2026, under Simpler Recycling reforms.
ACE UK runs its own dedicated food and drink carton reprocessing facility here in the UK, set up and opened in 2013 in partnership with paper and packaging producer Sonoco Alcore.
All cartons collected via ACE UK’s bring bank network are recycled here and we encourage Local Authorities and waste management companies to use this facility too.
How are food and drink cartons recycled at the facility?
The baled cartons are dropped into a pulper, which resembles a giant food mixer. They are pulped with water for around 20 minutes, which delaminates the packaging, breaking it down into a slurry.
The different layers of material are then separated, and the fibre is recycled at the on-site paper mill to manufacture coreboard, which is used to make cores and tubes for a variety of industrial applications.
ACE UK is currently working with a plastic recycler in Cheshire and have developed a line which will be able to recycle all of the separated polymers and aluminium layers from the facility into new products, such as durable fence posts.
