The company reports that this aluminum is now being used in the production of carton packaging, and the switch has immediately reduced its carbon footprint by 8%. Elopak also emphasizes that it works exclusively with members of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative and powers its operations with 100% renewable electricity.
Regardless of how sensible this initiative may be, recycling carton packaging remains challenging. In practice, it is a multilayer composite material in which cardboard, polymer layers, and aluminum must be separated before recycling. As a result, the process is more complex and costly than recycling ordinary paper or single-material packaging.
Even where recycling infrastructure is well developed, outcomes depend heavily on separate collection systems and economic incentives. In other words, environmental performance is determined not only by the packaging material itself, but also by the availability of collection and recycling infrastructure in a given country.
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