CARTONS AND RENEWABILITY
At Tetra Pak, we understand the importance of looking after our planet’s resources, which is why we prefer to use renewable materials. Cartons are made of around 73% wood fibre – a natural, renewable resource. We work hard to make sure that the paperboard we use comes from well managed forests. This is why we have ensured that over 1.5 billion of our cartons in the UK & Ireland can now carry the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) label.
As one of the highest standards in responsible forestry management, this move means you can feel confident you are doing your bit to look after the future of the world’s vital forests. Look out for the FSC label, that will start appearing on our cartons in stores.
Cartons are one of the only liquid food packaging type that are made from a natural, renewable resource and this helps lower the carbon footprint of the package. Cartons are repeatedly shown to be a low carbon package in environmental studies across the world. Not only that, they are also widely recyclable across the UK and Ireland.
Also, the special protective layers in our long-life cartons allow the product to be stored for up to a year, without the need for preservatives or refrigeration. This not only saves energy (associated with refrigeration throughout the distribution chain, in store and at home), but keeps the product fresh, right up until it is needed, helping to minimise food waste.
So if around ¾ of our package is made from a renewable material, what about the rest of it?
As you can well imagine paper does not react well to liquids, so we use plastic to waterproof the carton and, in the case of our long-life packs, we use a very thin layer of aluminium to keep oxygen away from the carton’s contents.
This allows the contents to be stored for up to or over a year, without the need for refrigeration or preservatives. It also keeps your product fresher for longer, allowing you to store your product until you need it, helping to save on food waste. This also means that you can save a lot of energy throughout the supply chain as the product does not need to be kept cold to maintain freshness.
But why are we committed to using renewable materials? The obvious reason is that renewable materials can be replaced and regenerated, meaning that we don’t run out of them, if managed properly, but another key reasons is carbon and climate impact.
Whilst paperboard makes up around 73% of the pack, it only makes up around 28% of the carbon footprint of the raw materials needed to package. This means that the plastic and aluminum make up over 70% the carbon impact of the raw materials, whist they only make up 27% of the pack. This means they are more carbon intensive materials. In fact, the aluminium, which makes up less than 4% of the pack, contributes around 50% of the carbon footprint of the raw materials. For a more detailed look, click here.
This is why we continually work to reduce the amount of plastic and aluminium we use in the first place. For example, the layer of aluminium we use is only 6 microns thick, less than that of a human hair. Less than 900 tonnes of aluminium is used in all the cartons we sell in the UK market per year. We are also investigating how to increase the share of renewable materials we use and reduce our total carbon footprint as a company by 10% by the end of the year versus 2005 levels.
For the plastic, “green polyethylene” (polymer from sugar cane alcohol) is being tested and we are also looking at non-aluminium alternatives. The introduction of Tetra Wide, a plastic used for the inner liner of our cartons, has now been rolled out across our whole portfolio, allowing up to 30% less plastic to be used here. We are also working to light-weight the plastic caps we use on our carton so that we offer easy to use openings, with carbon savings.
In searching for these alternatives however, we need to make sure that the carton still does the job it needs to do. Cartons are repeatedly shown to be a low carbon packaging choice in life cycle studies across the world www.tetrapak.com/climate and long life cartons offer the additional carbon saving of helping to reduce food waste, without the need for refrigeration.
For detailed information on Tetra Pak and its cartons click here. There is a lot of information available on renewability with an extensive list of FAQs to address any additional questions you might have.
For more information on the use of aluminium in our packs, please click here.
Persian leopards lived in mountainous areas throughout the Caucasus but largely disappeared last century because of poaching and a shrinking habitat.
WWF Russia is working on a project to re-introduce the Persian leopard to the Russian Caucasus, through long term commitment and support for sustainable forest management over many years.
The Russian Caucasus forest ecosystems are famous because of their extremely important environmental role as well as their richness in terms of biodiversity.
The forests contain a unique mixture of species, including the last remaining chestnut, wild pear, endemic oak and maple forests. Mountain forests play a critical role in preventing soil erosion and regulating water flow and forests harbour many exotic species of woody plants and herbs, and are important habitat to rare and endangered species of birds and animals.
Large predators such as the Persian leopard, wolf, and brown bear depend on forest ecosystems, as well as red deer, roe deer, bezoar goat, and wild boar. The role of forests in the economic and social life of the region is also very important.
Economic growth in the region depends on the forest sector, yet at the same time, these forests are facing serious problems of biodiversity and economic losses caused by imperfect forest management.
The only way to change this is to make sure that the forests are looked after properly and that systems are put in place to make sure that this happens.
All the money we have raised will go towards making sure just this happens, so that we can protect these amazing places and everything within them for centuries to come.
