Tetra Pak: It’s time to manage those used carton packs

Food processing and packaging solutions company Tetra Pak has tied up with Finish Society, a solid-waste management NGO, to increase collection of used carton packages in Udaipur. The NGO will be working closely with the Municipal Corporation of Udaipur to recover used packs of juice/milk, etc., from the corporation’s sorting centres. The used cartons collected through this initiative will be sent to the nearest recycler, Khatema Fibres Ltd.  

With this new partnership, Rajasthan has become the 22nd state/union territory covered by Tetra Pak’s collection network. This network covers 38 cities and 14 Indian Army contingents, supported by over 26 collection and awareness partners, across 22 states and union territories.

Tetra Pak and Finish Society will also focus on raising awareness among the waste-picker community about the value they can derive from collecting used beverage cartons and selling them to a recycler.  

Regarding the initiative, Jaideep Gokhale, Sustainability Director, Tetra Pak South Asia, says: ‘Tetra Pak cartons are paper-based and recyclable, and have the lowest carbon footprint among all other packaging materials used for similar food products. So, when we choose carton packaging, we are already making a positive choice. And when we segregate used cartons from our waste, we ensure that waste pickers earn an additional livelihood, and the used cartons get recycled into many useful items like benches, desks, bins, roofing sheets and more. Over the past 17 years, we have been able to expand our collection and recycling ecosystem across the country, and today over 40% cartons sold in India are recycled.’

Observing that ‘the need of the hour is to recover all recyclable waste and convert it into a resource,’ Saurabh Agnihotri of Finish Society says that they will be working on ‘raising awareness about recyclability of these packages on one hand, as well as set up drop-off points at registered shops, juice centres and other accessible locations where consumers can deposit their used cartons easily.’