Recycling technology to increase value of recycled aseptic cartons in Brazil

SIG today announces a BRL 10 mil­lion invest­ment in inno­v­a­tive recy­cling tech­nol­o­gy that will enable poly­mers and alu­mini­um from used asep­tic car­ton packs to be recov­ered and sold sep­a­rate­ly for the first time on an indus­tri­al scale in Brazil. By expand­ing the range of appli­ca­tions for recy­cled mate­ri­als from used asep­tic car­tons, SIG expects to increase their val­ue by more than 50 percent.

“We are excit­ed to bring to Brazil a new tech­nol­o­gy that will enable sep­a­ra­tion of alu­mini­um and poly­eth­yl­ene lay­ers from car­ton packs, there­by expand­ing the mar­ket for these mate­ri­als and gen­er­at­ing more val­ue from the sep­a­rat­ed waste,” says Ricar­do Rodriguez, Pres­i­dent and Gen­er­al Man­ag­er for SIG Amer­i­c­as. “This project is the lat­est in a series of inno­v­a­tive col­lab­o­ra­tions led by SIG to boost col­lec­tion and recy­cling rates for used asep­tic car­tons and grow the recy­cling chain in a sus­tain­able way.”

Inno­v­a­tive recy­cling technology

The renew­able paper board that makes up around 75 per­cent of asep­tic car­ton packs on aver­age can be sep­a­rat­ed for recy­cling in paper mills through Brazil’s exist­ing recy­cling infra­struc­ture. The poly­eth­yl­ene and alu­mini­um mix (polya­lu­mini­um or PolyAl) left over from this process can be recy­cled into a robust mate­r­i­al for pur­pos­es such as roof­ing, pal­lets and furniture.

SIG’s recy­cling plant will use inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­o­gy that makes it pos­si­ble to sep­a­rate the poly­eth­yl­ene from the alu­mini­um in PolyAl to cre­ate a wider mar­ket and demand for these recy­cled mate­ri­als. Devel­oped over five years with project part­ner ECS Con­sult­ing, the new tech­nol­o­gy has already under­gone a pilot project that proved the effec­tive­ness of the chem­i­cal recy­cling process.

The new recy­cling plant is cur­rent­ly in con­struc­tion in the state of Paraná. It is expect­ed to begin oper­at­ing in 2024 with an ini­tial pro­duc­tion capac­i­ty of 200 tonnes per month. Togeth­er with indus­try part­ners, SIG has also invest­ed in a plant in Ger­many to sep­a­rate poly­mers and alu­mini­um from PolyAl that went into pro­duc­tion in 2021.

Eth­i­cal col­lec­tion programmes 

Invest­ing in new tech­nol­o­gy to cre­ate a wider mar­ket for recy­cled mate­ri­als is an impor­tant step in increas­ing recy­cling rates for used asep­tic car­tons. SIG has already led the way with inno­v­a­tive pro­grammes to sup­port two oth­er impor­tant steps: col­lec­tion of used pack­ag­ing from con­sumers and sep­a­ra­tion of that pack­ag­ing to go into the right recy­cling streams.

SIG’s so+ma van­ta­gens pro­gramme, run in part­ner­ship with NGO so+ma since 2018, enables peo­ple in under­priv­i­leged com­mu­ni­ties to col­lect loy­al­ty points for bring­ing in waste for recy­cling. The points can then be exchanged for rewards, such as essen­tial food prod­ucts and skills train­ing. SIG is now expand­ing this mod­el to pro­mote recy­cling and bring addi­tion­al soci­etal ben­e­fits to fur­ther munic­i­pal­i­ties in Brazil and beyond.

SIG also pro­motes pub­lic poli­cies for selec­tive waste col­lec­tion in Brazil, and sup­ports effec­tive infra­struc­ture and decent work­ing con­di­tions for waste col­lec­tors’ coop­er­a­tives as a seed investor in the Reci­cleiros Cidades pro­gramme. Set up with NGO Reci­cleiros in 2018, the pro­gramme is now oper­a­tional in 13 munic­i­pal­i­ties and aims to reach 60 by 2027.

The focus on recy­cling in Brazil is part of SIG’s glob­al Way Beyond Good com­mit­ment to enhance the pos­i­tive envi­ron­men­tal and social impact of its packs through­out their lifecycle.

“At SIG, we are com­mit­ted to sourc­ing the mate­ri­als that go into our packs sus­tain­ably. We are already the first asep­tic car­ton pro­duc­er to source 100 per­cent FSCTM-cer­ti­fied board and use ASI-cer­ti­fied alu­mini­um,” says Isabela De Marchi, Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Man­ag­er for SIG South Amer­i­ca. “We are also deter­mined to fos­ter an eth­i­cal recy­cling chain that pro­motes col­lec­tion and recy­cling of our packs after use in a way that sup­ports com­mu­ni­ties, work­ers and the envi­ron­ment. The new recy­cling plant in Paraná takes us a step fur­ther on this jour­ney by max­imis­ing the retained eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal val­ue of the mate­ri­als recov­ered from asep­tic cartons.”