Monday 1 July 2013

Nice package! Tetra Pak trials cartons from sugar cane

Packaging firm Tetra Pak is developing cartons from Brazilian sugar cane. From 2014 it will trial a bio-based plastic made with sugar cane for all Tetra Pak packages made in its Brazilian factories.

Up to 13 billion cartons will be made using the plastic, a low density polyethylene (LDPE), which comes from ethylene produced with the ethanol that’s derived from the sugar cane.

Tetra Pak says this means 82% of its packaging material in Brazil will come from renewable sources.

Carlos Fadigas, President of the plastics firm Braskem which developed the new packaging said the plastic is “as inert, resistant and recyclable as the polyethylene made from fossil sources”.

He added: “But it contributes to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during the sugar cane growth process.”