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The truth is, carton recycling is spreading very quickly across the UK as Tetra Pak, the UK's largest producer of cartons, has been funding recycling banks for their cartons in association with ACE UK (Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment in the UK).  Many local authorities are now jumping at the opportunity, in fact there are now over 150 councils who have implemented carton recycling.

Each year, UK beverage carton manufacturers produce approximately 55,000 tonnes of paper-based cartons for milk, juice, sauces and other liquid foods/drinks. This equates to around 2.3kg of cartons per household which could be recycled instead of thrown in the rubbish bin.

Richard Hands, Environment Manager at Tetra Pak Ltd and Chairman of ACE UK, added:
"Whilst cartons are successfully recycled in large volumes for many years throughout Europe, the UK has a long way to go. We and our industry partners are committed to increasing the level of carton recycling in the UK with the aim of reaching a national network of carton collection by the end of 2008."

John Rose, marketing director at Tetra Pak, said:
"It has been our goal to get local authorities to sign up and we have been very impressed with the response which has been really positive and there has been a very quick turn around time for decision making which has been impressive."

Mr Rose said that he expected the progress to continue into the New Year with almost full national coverage by the end of 2007.

Mr Rose continued:
"It does not stop here. Our real aim is to get carton recycling to the kerbside over the next two years, because people like to recycle at the kerbside. The clearest way to show people that cartons are recyclable is to promote the facilities."

If you would like to know where your nearest recycling centre is just log onto the Tetra Pak website and view their interactive map.  Alternatively, look at the recycling page on your local authority's website.