The TetraPak Problem

Use It All was at Heritage Open Days Market on the Triangle last Saturday the 18th September. It was busy. A lot of interesting conversations and ideas.

Most people we talked with are enthusiastic about recycling, and pleased we're offering collection points.

But doing the Use It All stall has made it starkly clear that there's a lot of confusion about what can be recycled, and where.

In particular, TetraPaks and similar cartons. These are the ones you get drinks in, like soya milk, oat milk and so on. Use It All collects these, and we've already got about five large boxful's of cartons, all flattened – that's quite a lot. We'll take them to the Recycling Centre in Hadenham Road on the South Lowestoft Industrial Estate. Don't put TetraPaks in your Blue Bin. 

But, frankly, that's a bit nuts. These cartons are everywhere. It's about time we got a proper way to deal with them – at least until industries get their house in order and start to think 'reuse and recycle' right at the beginning of the chain of production. It's a fantastically inefficient way of dealing with waste. We should be doing better.

Why can't we have TetraPak Banks, as we do for glass bottles, textiles, and paper?

Use It All is going to start campaigning on this single issue (while sorting out Climate Change, energy reduction and all the rest). We'll probably link it to Food Waste Collection at some point, as Use It All is pretty sure it's going to be an item in the upcoming Environment Law.

Use It All hopes to raise the issue very soon with James Mallinder, East Suffolk County Councillor and leader of the Environment Group.