Tetra Pak takes its recycling campaign a notch higher

By John Oyuke

Tetra Pak, the global food processing and packaging solutions giant, has stepped up its recycling campaign to help eliminate waste package material.

The firm is seeking to partner with other recyclers including Ekotech, a recycling firm that specialises in making building materials from used Tetra Pak cartons.

Tetra Pak East Africa Managing Director Anders Lindgren said the firm managed to recycle a total of 45 tonnes last year in the country.

"We hope to work with other partners if volumes collected continue increasing in the region," Lindgren said in a statement.

He said a post-consumer recycling initiative launched last year has been a significant success in collecting the company’s waste material, mainly from consumers of milk and juice products.

"This campaign has led to a 100 per cent increase in the amount of recycled waste to reach 18 tonnes in the last quarter of 2010."

"We see this as big leap since we recycled about nine tonnes in the last quarter of 2009 and we expect this initiative to bring far-reaching changes not only in the way waste material is managed, but also how we interact with partners in this effort," added Lindgren.

Tetra Pak’s post-recycling set up involves working with existing garbage collectors to separate the recyclable materials and deliver to selected environmental groups for sorting, drying and delivering for recycling into various products.

Speaking during an education session in Nairobi, Tetra Pak Communications and Environment Manager, Wanjiku Mugo said the firm has approached some of the hotels and schools with a guarantee of at least a tonne of waste packages weekly.

She said the partnership with schools is part of the packaging company’s wider post-recycling initiative involving school children.

"What we’re doing in Kenya is basically a global practice for us," Mugo said.

Lindgren said Tetra Pak is also taking advantage of modern technology to reduce waste material from its factories.