Recycling
Otis Cartons & Recycling 101 – A complete guide.
Can I recycle my Otis containers?
In short yes, Liquid Paperboard Packaging (LPB, commonly known as Tetra Pak) is ‘recyclable’ and has the lowest carbon footprint of all packaging types. However, NZ’s archaic waste and recycling system has not yet able to plug the saveBOARD LPB recycling plant into our nationwide kerbside collection scheme, so therefore it is not yet nationally ‘kerbside collected’.
Even though the worldwide standard is widely accepted as LPB cartons due to their lower footprint, and LPB recycling infrastructure is the norm – New Zealand is still trying to break the cycle with its plastic addiction.
We at Otis, along with other large industry players, from brands to retailers to packaging manufacturers, including Fonterra, Goodman Fielder, Frucor, Alpro, Danone, Sanitarium, All Good, SIG Packaging, Tetra Pak Packaging, Pams, Foodstuffs, Lemipak, Countdown NZ – have all formed a packaging recovery organisation to push for legislation to ensure this low footprint packaging is plugged into nationwide kerbside recycling ASAP.
If you are interested in seeing what we had to say to the Government on that matter see here, or if you want to understand why we still believe LPB is the way forward over other packaging types see here.
Ok, back to it. If you’ve followed Otis for a wee while then you’re likely to have seen us espousing the virtues of saveBOARD, an exciting new venture which upcycles used packaging such as coffee cups and our LPB cartons into much needed building materials such as plasterboard, a NZ first on all counts.
We fully believe in the untapped potential and enormous possibilities that this initiative has within NZ for significantly improving both our recycling and building shortage problems.
Currently, saveBOARD are establishing a network of collection centres nationwide where anyone can drop off their empties. One of these locations, the Hawke’s Bay Environment Centre, has a special place in Otis’ heart, as our partnership with the centre and Tetra Pak helped to fund their in-house baler that enables significantly more cost effective storage of the empty milk cartons, and their transportation to saveBOARD in Hamilton.
So, to summarise, you can’t put your Tetra Pak into kerbside recycling yet, but you can find a drop-off location close to you where your cartons can be collected and transported to saveBOARD!
Any tips or tricks for how best to prepare our cartons for saveBOARD?
You have come to the right people, indeed we do!
Here is a handy diagram for you to reference whenever you’ve polished off a carton. After a few tries, we suspect you’ll have mastered it though!
