Local footprint

Food and beverage cartons are widely recycled in Spain. The selective collection system through the yellow bin has been in place for almost 30 years, allowing citizens to recycle their cartons across the country. Traditionally, waste management has been carried out by Ecoembes, however, as of 2025, Procircular has joined as a new authorized EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) system to operate in the household packaging sector. 

For decades, awareness campaigns have been carried out in Spain to encourage citizens' collaboration in selective collection and recycling. This is a fundamental task that must continue to be promoted, since active citizen participation is key for the recycling chain to work effectively.

The yellow bin collection model is complemented by selective out-of-home collection, especially for at live concerts and sports events. This has helped to integrate recycling into citizens' lifestyle and progressively increase selective collection rates for food and beverage cartons which, according to recent estimations, today exceeds 70%.

Nearly all paper and paperboard fibers are recovered at recycling facilities of companies such as Saica and Alier. These fibers are highly valued for their quality, allowing them to be turned into new applications like paper bags, corrugated cardboard, sacks, boxes, egg cartons, etc. In recent years, companies such as Alier and Trans Sabater have also launched significant projects to intensify the recycling of Polyal, (a material resulting from polyethylene and aluminium), enabling these materials to be transformed into new products used in construction, home furniture, and decoration. According to latest estimations, food and beverage cartons are recycled at a rate of over 60% on average in Spain.

Meanwhile, in neighbouring Portugal, food and beverage cartons have also been collected for over 30 years. Initially, their collection began in schools through dedicated systems, but with the involvement of waste management entities such as Sociedade Ponto Verde, the collection was progressively extended to households and Food Service sector. Currently, the collection system covers the whole country, although there are still some inefficiencies, there is still room for improvement to catch up with the results achieved in Spain. 

Information in Spanish

Beverage cartons are widely recycled in Italy. They have been collected and recycled since the early 2000s. There are two main models in place depending on infrastructural facilities:

• With paper and board ~ 75% of total used beverage carton collection from households
• With metal and plastic  ~  25%

Almost 80% of the population is covered by these collection systems.

The cardboard, the main component of beverage cartons, is recovered for recycling and, due to the quality of the fibers, it is a highly demanded raw material that is used for multiple applications such as boxes, bags, etc.

Numerous campaigns have been carried out in Italy aimed at authorities and citizens to increase their participation in collecting and recycling beverage cartons. We believe that this is a fundamental task that must continue to be promoted because the active involvement of the citizen is key to making recycling chain work.

Our sector not only works to ensure the recycling of beverage cartons but also has a vision and a firm commitment to reduce environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle of the product.

In the Nordic region, beverage cartons are collected with paper and board in Sweden and Norway. In July 2021, Denmark started the implementation of a new waste management scheme and thus the collection of beverage cartons. Here, beverage cartons are collected in three different streams depending on the municipality. The most common is with plastic, however some municipalities are collecting beverage cartons with plastics and metal, or in a pure stream of beverage cartons only.

The collected beverage cartons in the Nordic region are sent to different recycling facilities. Some in the Nordics and others to facilities around Europe. Here, the beverage cartons are shredded, washed and pulped in water. In this process the fibers, plastic and aluminium are separated from one another. The fibers are a valuable secondary raw material for other paper and cardboard products. The challenge in the region is to ensure that more beverage cartons are collected, and to make sure that all materials in the beverage carton, including the plastics and aluminium, are recycled at scale. There are projects running that aim to increase recycling.

In order to improve the collection rate in Sweden, we advocate for legal national collection targets and mandatory sorting. Sorting the collected streams into separate fractions would improve the quality and efficiency of the recycling, and as well enable recycling of the non-fiber part of the carton (PolyAl).

Starting January 1^st, 2024, Swedish Municipalities have been given the responsibility for collecting packaging waste from households. This is an opportunity to increase the number of collected beverage cartons. Our industry looks forward to working with the Swedish Municipalities on solutions to improve the collection, sorting and recycling of used beverage cartons.

In the Nordics, with a focus on Sweden and Denmark, we are aiming to increase our communication and engagement with other organizations on joint messages to support our efforts.

For the beverage carton industry, it is crucial that all countries in the Nordic region have a separate collection target for beverage cartons to ensure the increase in the amount of beverage cartons collected.

Information in Danish

Information in Swedish

Separate BC collection and recycling

Beverage cartons are collected together with light-weight packaging (plastic bottles and cans), in so-called yellow bins or yellow bags. Containers for residents of apartment buildings are located on so-called eco-islands (collection points for different waste fractions) while the door-to-door system has been introduced for single-family houses almost two decades ago throughout the major area of Slovenia. The collection network is well-established and functional.

Public utility companies take over collected lightweight packaging and hand it over to waste management companies through which producers fulfill their EPR obligations. In the sorting center, the light-weight packaging is divided into fractions, BC being one of them. It is furthermore compressed into bale and proceeded to recovery operations.

There is no official data on how many beverage cartons are collected and recycled, only industry estimates, as the packaging format is not recognized as an individual category. Most of collected UBC in Slovenia is recycled in paper mill Lucart in Italy. Analysis show that a certain amount of used beverage cartons is not collected in practice for the purpose of recycling.

Learn more at: Moji odpadki (in Slovene)

Circular initiatives for BC in local communities

There is an increase in municipalities adopting and implementing the so-called “Closed Municipal Material Cycle”. It is based on collaboration of municipalities, utility companies, packaging waste management companies, and recyclers, including also public institutions and residents. It aims to recycle the collected UBC and produce new, high-quality paper hygiene products from the carton component of the UBC in accordance with high environmental and health standards, which are supplied to public institutions in the local community where UBC has been collected. Similar initiatives are implemented in some Slovenian companies.

Challenges related to beverage cartons

In August 2024, the new edition of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA-3) was presented, introducing one Organization for one waste stream. The act has not been formally adopted and is expected to be additionally updated. The main challenges related to BC in Slovenia are:

• To increase collection and recycling rate to reach European average and to meet the goals set by the EU;
• To advocate for BC inclusion in national legislation according to ACE positions;
• To include BC in DRS system, if and when introduced in Slovenia;
• To position and raise awareness of BC being a recyclable, sustainable and circular packaging solution.

ACE in Slovenia is:

• Actively participating in waste packaging related legislative processes, addressing the competent ministry;
• Advocating for a collection/recycling target for beverage cartons;
• Building relations with several stakeholders: business associations (sections within the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia), Slovene Trade Association, Consumers Association of Slovenia, NGOS and others in this field of environment, sustainability, circular economy and education.
• Providing updates to all relevant stakeholders.
• Promoting collection, recycling and circularity of BC among several stakeholders and target audiences.