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Recycling is a military operation for Tetra Pak. Last year it launched a campaign from its North Wales HQ in Wrexham to bring councils across the UK to surrender and introduce carton collection facilities. The resulting map of the country, found on the company's recycling website, charts Tetra Pak's achievement in conquering the councils of the UK.

When the campaign began in June 2007, only 20% of local authorities in the UK collected cartons for recycling. The company’s response was to set up a "war room", comprising its commercial team, whose brief was to contact all
the local councils in the UK to convince them to introduce carton collection. This was only the start of the
company's efforts.

Tetra Pak initially invested £300,000 in a national recycling fund in 2006. Later, with Elopak and SIG Combibloc, it invested a further £1.2m under the banner of ACE, the Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment, to support local authorities in setting up their own collection facilities. As a consequence, just over 85% of all councils in the UK now take cartons, through a mixture of bring-banks and kerbside, the eventual aim being the introduction of kerbside collections across the UK.

Green credentials are not something that people naturally associate with the Tetra Pak carton, despite the firm's efforts to promote cartons as lightweight and made of a renewable resource – board. The 4% aluminium, 22% polyethylene and 74% cartonboard laminate cannot be separated by the consumer into its component parts for recycling and so cannot be sent through traditional recycling systems. Instead it has its own waste stream.
 
When the project was initially set up, Smith Anderson, a paper mill in Fife, Scotland, was contracted to recycle the waste cartons. But, as energy prices spiked and paper processing in the UK shrank, Smith Anderson, like many other UK paper mills, fell victim and closed down.

Overseas recycling
"Left without a mill in the UK, it was important that we guaranteed a route for that material," explains environment manager Richard Hands. In quick succession a deal was put in place with the Örebro mill in Sweden and the Hurum mill in Norway. Tetra Pak insists that although the pack is shipped to Scandinavia for recycling, the carbon footprint of doing so is less than if it were recycled in the UK, due to the large amounts of renewable energy used in that region. However, the company is currently in discussions regarding bringing recycling back to mills in the UK.

In May, Tetra Pak received confirmation from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and the Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) that its cartons will be in the ‘widely recycled’ category of the new common recycling logo for retail packaging.

At the helm of the firm's UK operation is Peter Knutsson, a Swede and Tetra Pak lifer, who is actively steering the business through the credit crunch, which, due to the long-term nature of the company’s relationship with its suppliers, the company has been able to weather. In particular, Knutsson has focused on entering new markets in the UK and forming closer relationships with the retail sector.

A recent consequence of this has been the appointment in July of Ian Williamson to the post of retail manager.In his new role, Williamson meets directly with retailers. Tetra Pak previously dealt exclusively with the suppliers, but has now adopted a "three-party strategy" that opens up dialogue with the supplier and supermarket. As Williamson explains: "The extent of the Tetra Pak portfolio is probably something of great interest to the retailers and it’s something we’ve not relayed directly before as we’ve always gone through our customers."
As part of the project, Tetra Pak UK has conducted interviews with all the major supermarkets to discover what they want from a packaging supplier.

The company has consequently identified eight key elements that retailers are seeking, including food safety and the environment. Richard Hands explains: "Retailers are big brands in their own right these days and, of course, they are committed to environmental programmes. There's now a big demand to compete openly about the credentials of packaging."

All Tetra Paks sold in the UK have the company’s recycling website printed on their base. And the firm is keen to
highlight the opportunities offered by the fact the whole surface area of a carton is printable. Knutsson cites the example of Avonmore milk in Ireland, which in a recent campaign, dedicated a whole panel to recycling information. "The carton can take much more than a bottle," says Knutsson. "It’s a billboard and a canvas to be used."

Tetra Pak has repeatedly used the environment as launch pad for the brand. At the end of last year, Sainsbury’s introduced the first Forest Stewardship Council-certified Tetra Recart pack for its own-label premium chopped tomatoes. The Tetra Recart, which is designed for food, launched in Sweden 10 years ago and entered the UK two years ago.

Another sector in which the carton is gaining new ground is wine, with brands such as Banrock Station and French Connection adopting one-litre packs. With this format, consumers can benefit from a portable, convenient pack, while retailers can reduce fuel costs, as the cartons are lighter than bottles and their distribution costs less, both financially and environmentally.

Food and wine are relatively new markets for Tetra Pak, which has traditionally produced packs mainly for the milk and juice markets. Dairy accounts for more than 60% of the firm’s business. Robert Wiseman Dairies is an example of a customer that has taken full advantage of the printing space offered by the carton by regularly featuring limited edition designs to celebrate seasonal events, in addition to annual charity months where the proceeds of the charity-branded packs go back to the charity.

Design icon
Earlier in the year, the Tetra Pak was recognised for its own design rather than that of a food or beverage brand. It was among 30 iconic designs chosen by Harrods to feature in a series of lectures at London's Design Museum, Design Icons.

Tetra Pak is one of the few packaging brand names that the general public recognise. The Swedish company has achieved this with little to no direct advertising to consumers. Although, Knutsson does not rule this out as a possibility in the future.

The new branding, rolled out at the start of the year, gives an opportunity for the company to raise awareness of the brand by promoting itself through the “protects what’s good” slogan. As marketing director Anders Olsson says: "It's brought us a bit closer to a brand company." The tagline marks one of many changes at the company, including
the move into new markets, new marketing strategies and environmental projects. This comes in a year
when the group has reported record sales of £7bn in 2007, up 6% on 2006.

All of which suggests that as the credentials of cartons continue to grow in the retail sector, it may not be long before the newly rebranded Tetra Pak becomes part of consumer consciousness, too. Kerbside collection of used cartons is the company’s next target, and the second wave of attack is already sweeping the nation. While pockets of resistance still remain in the South West and Scotland, perhaps it won’t be long before Tetra Pak conquers all.