Mario Abreu, vice president sustainability, Tetra Pak, announced the development of new caps – to add new opening and closing devices that will allow an improvement to the package, that address new EU regulations.

“Tethered caps are currently in our development roadmap and part of the €50m we are investing in the development of tethered caps over the next three years. We are building a portfolio of products to address circular economy regulations and customer needs for caps.”

He added that the carton giant had spent €20m between 2012-2018 to support global recycling infrastructure expansion.

He said some parts of the world had good infrastructure while others lacked recycling capacity. “Our teams work with potential recyclers and invest in recycling plants for post-consumer cartons. We want to be a partner for collecting and recycling post-consumer cartons.”

He said the company has created 45 new roles since last year to support infrastructure recycling.

“These roles are helping to create and support a circular economy in 40 countries. We know that no two markets look the same and their needs are different. These colleagues in the different markets help us to understand what needs to be done and prioritise our resources and efforts effectively.”

Abreu also said Tetra Pak will invest €30m over the next three years in the development of paper straws and other solutions to replace plastic straws.

Additionally, he said Tetra Pak was in the final stages of creating new paper straws – which it will invest €30m over the next three years – that will have low impact on the environment if they become litter.

“We are actually about to embark on production trials with a customer. As you can imagine we need to make sure that the paper straw meets food safety standards and performs well. This takes time, investment in new technology and trials to make sure this is done right.”

Furthermore, as part of Tetra Pak’s commitment to the EMF New Plastic Economy, the company will incorporate a minimum of 10% recycled plastics content in Europe on average across its beverage cartons by 2025.

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