Old Town entrepreneur hosts town’s first drink carton recycling point

Kris Talikowski, the owner of The Core juice bar in Swindon’s Old Town, has announced that the juice bar is now Swindon’s first recycling point for all food and drink cartons, such as those made by Tetra Pak, Elopak, and SIG Combibloc.

Until now, Swindonians have been unable to easily recycle food and drink cartons as they are not included in the town’s kerbside collections.  
 
Kris, who created The Core 6 years ago, felt it was time to do something about it.
 
“Here at the Core we have always been committed to being as eco-friendly and sustainable as possible. Through our workshops we encourage people to swap to dairy-free milk, as it is better for your health, however, these healthier products often come in cartons which cannot be easily recycled. We felt there was a disparity between advising people to consume a product which is healthier for your body, yet not helping the environment.”
 
Kris contacted a company, ACE UK, the Trade Association for the UK food & drink carton industry, who can recycle this type of container and has arranged for collections to begin from The Core this week. 
 
“Since we opened up a section of the cafe to launch the 'Nude Foods' Zero Waste shop, I have become even more committed to creating solutions for reducing waste and to offer better recycling.”  
 
“This seemed like a positive thing to offer the people of Swindon and it won’t cost them anything apart from the time it takes to wash, flatten and bring in the cartons.”

Food and drink cartons are made from two or three main materials, depending on whether the carton is for short or long shelf-life products:

• paperboard made from wood fibre (typically 75%)
• low density polyethylene (typically 21%)
• aluminium foil (typically 4%, only in long-life packages)

The collected cartons will be recycled at a dedicated facility in West Yorkshire where they are made into coreboard which is converted into tubes and cores, such as hot chocolate and gravy granule containers.

People wanting to recycle their food and drink cartons, need to:

• Wash out the container with warm water
• Fold or flatten and squash their container up with the lid off
• The lid can then be placed back onto the carton and any straws pushed inside
• Bringing these cartons into The Core when the juice bar is open and the team will take them and ensure they are recycled 

Kris said: “Alongside this initiative, our staff at The Core are also educating customers that our takeaway cups, which may look like plastic, are actually made from plants and are fully compostable and should not be put in plastic recycling.  We have also got new glass bottles so people can buy and re-use these new bottles for juices.” 
 
The Core is open for container collections Monday to Friday 8am - 3pm and Saturday 8am - 4pm. For more information about carton recycling can be found at http://www.ace-uk.co.uk/recycling/how-are-beverage-cartons-recycled