ACE recycling visit: Beverage carton recycling – here & now

On the 27 September, ACE organised a field visit to a waste sorting centre and a recycling plant. Representatives from EU Member States, the European Commission and the European Parliament were able to discover the journey made by used beverage cartons, from sorting and recycling, to use in new products.

Valtris in Charleroi, Belgium, is the result of cooperation between three inter-municipal authorities on waste management in the Walloon region. The PMD sorting plant was inaugurated in 2013 and is the biggest and most modern of its kind in the Walloon region with a capacity of 22.000 tonnes input of PMD. With the support of Fost Plus, participants also learned about the management of household packaging waste in Belgium.

WEPA, the paper mill recycling beverage cartons, demonstrated that beverage carton recycling is efficiently underway. The paper mill has produced hygienic paper from used beverage cartons since 2016. The WEPA mill, based in Swalmen, the Netherlands, also provides innovative and sustainable washroom solutions.

Inge Eggermont, Director of the Dutch beverage carton association HEDRA, explained how the Dutch waste collection works and shared new developments in the recycling of Poly-Aluminium in the Netherlands. Recon Polymers invested in a pilot installation that will reprocess the Poly-Aluminium, separated from fibres during the beverage carton recycling process, into secondary material for input back into the plastic and aluminium industry. The plant will have a capacity of 6.000 tonnes per year and will be commercially operational in early 2019.