The two companies will partner to provide circular solutions to the market. The investment in a complete recycling solution is set to significantly improve recycling throughout Central and Eastern Europe.
Stora Enso and Tetra Pak have announced that they are investing a total of €29.1 million to expand the beverage carton recycling infrastructure at Stora Enso’s Ostrołęka production unit in Poland. The proposed investment aims to triple the annual recycling capacity of used beverage cartons in Poland from 25,000 to 75,000 tonnes.
Beverage cartons are produced from a mix of materials. Stora Enso is spending €17 million to install a new repulping line that will recover the carton fibres, which will then be reintegrated into its recycled board;Tetra Pak, along with Plastigram, will invest a total of €12.1 million on a line designed to recover and separately recycle the polymers and the aluminium, using a patented separation technology. These will be used in applications such as crates and foils. Both lines will be operational by the beginning of 2023.
The investment aims to contribute to the development of a circular economy at a country level.
As a result of this expansion in capacity, the facility will be able to handle the entire volume of beverage cartons sold in Poland, and some from the neighbouring countries of Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, as well. “Moreover, as EU collection systems continue to evolve, the project holds potential to increase capacity for future excess volumes,” said Hannu Kasurinen, Executive Vice President of Stora Enso’s Packaging Materials division.
The set-up will also be fully aligned with the European Green Deal. The collected cartons will be managed in an environmentally sound manner, making full use of the materials resulting from the recycling process.
“Today, carton packages are recyclable. They are collected and recycled at scale where waste management and recycling infrastructure is in place. But for us, that's not enough,” said Charles Brand, President of Tetra Pak Europe & Central Asia.
“We are seeking opportunities across the entire recycling value chain to improve how cartons get recycled and to develop solutions that effectively recycle all packaging components, including polymers and aluminium.”