Why recycle Tetra Paks?

The company that produces Tetra Paks have an ongoing committment to recycle and recover their product.

This is how it is done:

  1. baled cartons are dropped into a pulper, similar to a giant food mixer
  2. filled with water, and
  3. pulped for around 20 minutes.
  4. This breaks down the packaging to produce a grey-brown mixture.
  5. The aluminium foil and polyethylene are separated from the fibre,
  6. The fibre is recovered to make new paper products
  7. The remianing mix of plastic and aluminium can then be used in furniture, to generate energy or even separated out into pure aluminium and paraffin.

You can follow this link to find out more: Tetra Pak recycling.

What do we do on Coll?

Tetra Paks are gathered at the Village Compound, and then shipped to Tiree.  From here they get sent to a mainland processing plant.




How can I get involved?

It's really helpful if you can clean them and flatten them as much as possible before putting into the recycling bin.

Tetra Paks can be upcycled to make new products.  Tetra Pak wallets are a firm favourite! Here's one example of how to make a wallet.