Four U.S. carton manufacturers have joined forces to help advance improvements to the country’s carton recycling infrastructure. The formation of the Carton Council (www.recyclecartons.com), by Tetra Pak (www.tetrapak.com), Elopak (www.elopak.us), Evergreen Packaging (www.evergreenpackaging.com), and SIG Combibloc (www.sig.biz), is an unusual move by companies that are strong industry competitors. However, a shared commitment to sustainability has brought them together as they seek to improve the environmental performance of their products.

The council is specifically committed to increasing carton recycling in the U.S. By promoting both recycling technology and local collection programs, it believes it can help limit the number of cartons that become waste.

According to the council, cartons are an effective form of liquid food and beverage packaging and play an important role in protecting the nutritional value of these products. Chilled kitchen staples, like milk and orange juice, have long been packaged in traditional gabletop cartons. Increasingly, aseptic cartons are being utilized for food and beverage products like soups and broths, organic milk, soy milk, wine, and juices, as a means to make them shelf stable, eliminating the need for preservatives and refrigeration.

The council also plans to encourage consumers to consider the environmental impact of product packaging before they make a purchase. Both gabletop and aseptic cartons are made primarily from paper, a renewable resource that is highly recyclable. In general, cartons have a smaller carbon footprint than traditional packages, claims the council.

“We are very proud that the environmental impact of cartons already is among the lowest in the packaging industry,” says Ed Klein, executive director of the Carton Council. “Cartons are source-reduced and made primarily of paper, a renewable resource, from responsibly sourced, well-managed forests. But we want to take our commitments to the next level, and that’s where significantly increasing recycling comes in.”

Klein notes that the council plans to work with communities that wish to add cartons to their recycling programs and will serve as a resource and forum for carton education.

“Currently, communities in 26 states in the U.S. are able to recycle cartons, which gives more than 60 million people access to carton recycling. This is significant, but we are not satisfied. We want to increase the number of communities that recycle cartons, and we want to inform consumers in those communities that they can recycle their cartons and motivate them to do so,” said Klein.

One of the first alliances from the Carton Council to increase carton recycling is with Waste Management, which has agreed to include cartons in all their recycling programs. Also working closely with the Council is Tropicana brand. Recently, Tropicana, Waste Management, and the Carton Council announced a national campaign to increase carton recycling to every community in the U.S.

More information on the Carton Council and a searchable database to identify community carton recycling programs, is available on the coucil’s Web site.