Cardboard Packaging for Food and Beverages: Challenges and Alier’s Commitment to Recycling
Cardboard packaging for food and beverages is difficult to process due to its lamination, and not 100% of the fiber can be utilized. Moreover, if at least 55% of this material is not recycled by 2030, it will no longer be marketable.
At Alier, we have committed to starting the recycling of polyethylene and aluminum in 2023. This commitment is possible thanks to our innovation efforts and cutting-edge technology, which allows us to recycle the fiber obtained from beverage cartons at our facilities. Consequently, we have our own mechanical recycling line for polyethylene and aluminum from these packages, making us a pioneering integrated recycler, beyond the 100% recycled paper we already provide.
How have we achieved this? Through our recycling process, which transforms these wastes into polyethylene and aluminum pellets—a secondary raw material that can be revalorized in other industries, thus promoting the circular economy. To achieve this, we shred the waste and then proceed to mechanical washing, which allows us to separate the different fractions of the waste. Subsequently, we process the plastic waste through an extruder machine that compacts it, resulting in polyethylene and aluminum pellets. These pellets are an excellent 100% recycled raw material that re-enters the market for new uses in various applications, such as in the logistics or gardening industries, among others.
