Tetra Pak launches ‘industry’s first’ renewable cartons

Carton manufacturer Tetra Pak has launched the ‘industry’s first’ carton packaging made entirely from plant-based, renewable materials.

The new Tetra Rex® carton will reportedly be the first in the market to have bio-based low-density polyethylene (LDPE) films and bio-based high-density polyethylene (HDPE) caps, both derived from sugar cane. The rest of the packaging will be made from Forest Stewardship Council (FSC™) certified paperboard.

Developed in partnership with thermoplastic resins producer Braskem, the new Tetra Rex® package will be available in early 2015.

Customers using the standard one-litre Tetra Rex with TwistCap OSO 34 have been told that they can transfer to the new version without the need for any additional investment or modification to their existing filling machines.  

This latest development follows on from the ‘world’s first’ bio-based opening for gable-top packages that Tetra Pak released earlier this year. The bio-based version of TwistCap OSO 34 reportedly improved the environmental performance of paperboard gable-top packages – such as those used for fruit juice and milk – by four per cent (when compared to gable-top packages with traditional HDPE caps).

The cap is made from fermenting and distilling the juice from crushed sugar cane to make ethanol, which is then converted to ethylene through a process of dehydrations. This is then polymerised to produce the polyethylene used to manufacture the cap.

“We are leading the industry towards 100 per cent renewable packaging”

Talking about the new Tetra Rex® carton, Charles Brand, Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Tetra Pak, said: “Environment excellence is one of Tetra Pak’s strategic priorities and a driver of our product development activities.

“Together with suppliers, customers and other stakeholders, we are leading the industry towards 100 per cent renewable packaging. We believe that increasing the renewable contents of our packages is not only good for the environment, but also offers our customers a competitive advantage in the overall environmental profile of their products.”

Find out more about Tetra Rex® or Tetra Pak’s bio-based gable-top cap.