Spain will expand recycling capacity to 30,000 tons per year of polyal from beverage cartons in 2025

The general director of Tetra Pak Iberia, Chakib Kara, stated at the Iberia III Forum, held in Madrid, that the company’s objective is to reach in 2025 the installed capacity necessary to recycle 30,000 tons of polyal per year from cardboard packaging to drinks.

This forum, organized by the multinational Tetra Pak under the title “Recycling of cardboard containers for beverages: challenges, opportunities and new life”, was held with the aim of raising awareness among consumers and manufacturers of the quality of these components, and has specifically highlighted the benefits of polyal.

Currently there is an installed annual mechanical recycling capacity of 10,000 tons of polyal, a fraction of polyethylene and aluminum necessary to guarantee the food safety of cardboard packaging, and which can be given a second life in the manufacture of products such as flower pots, indoor furniture or outdoor furniture.

Kara added that, thanks to alliances with local recyclers, they have optimized the separation process of polyethylene and aluminum after recovering the paper fiber from the packaging.

For his part, the Business Development Manager of the Valencian waste management company Trans Sabater, Pablo Sabater, has calculated that they have the capacity to recycle “between 10,000 and 12,000 tons”, and wanted to make it clear that “the things well and you can give a second life to that material.

In the process to reuse this component, Sabater has highlighted that it is colored and combined with other plastics and that its product, a resin obtained through a patented mechanical recycling process, has “standard quality and characteristics and at an economically viable price.” ».

During the day, the head of Sustainability at Tetra Pak Iberia, Virginia Rodríguez, said that the company has opted for partners whose mechanical recycling technologies “allow specific processing” after extracting the paper fiber, which maximizes the amount of material recovered. without losing quality.

One of the companies that has exemplified this second use is Keter, dedicated to the production of designer pots with polyal, which, in the words of its general director for southern Europe, María Jesús Esteve, represents “a real innovation” that is introduced into traditional production processes.

At the Iberia III Forum, different works by Spanish companies that use polyal to manufacture their products have been exhibited; In addition to the Keter pots, it was possible to see street furniture from the Valencian company CM Plastik and designer interior furniture from the Avila company Nagami.

Finally, in a round table on the opportunities and challenges of selective collection and recycling of cardboard beverage containers, the director of Circular Economy of the Fuenlabrada City Council, Ricardo Luis Izquierdo, and the director of External Relations of Ecoembes, Begoña from Benito, have agreed that packaging must be eco-designed so that the recovery of its materials is maximum, as well as making recycling easier for citizens.