• More Information

    More information about why there is a cost for collections

    Why do I have to pay for my collection? Can’t I just put them in my local bank?
    Schools waste is not treated the same way as the waste from your home. The government calls it 'household waste for which a charge for collection may be made'. This is why schools normally have to pay for their waste and recycling to be collected and also why your council is responsible for collecting your waste. You cannot put school's waste into our Local Authority bring banks because they are only for 'non charged for household waste', like the waste from your home.

    We are partly subsidising this schools collection service, but unfortunately we cannot provide you with a cost neutral service. With 32,000 schools and colleges in the UK, we are not able to fully subsidise carton recycling in schools. We have focused all of our investment in the infrastructure as the best route to making carton recycling widely available.

    What if my council wants to set up/subsidise a county-wide/ district-wide scheme?
    We will happily talk to any District or County and help them to work with the local contractor to either set up or subsidise a county-wide or district-wide scheme.  Please note: we cannot contact a council on behalf of a school asking for a subsidised collection and we cannot provide any further level of subsidy. Councils can contact us on recyclingofficer.uk@tetrapak.com.

    Does Tetra Pak make any money from this scheme?
    No. We are working with our ACE UK partners and together we are actually subsidising the processing of cartons for recycling from schools. This is not our service. We have helped to facilitate it to maximise carton recycling in the UK.

    All the information in this box can also be found in the FAQs. If you want a printable list of all the relevant information, you need only print the FAQs page and the two schools pages.

    More information about quotes

    How do I find out what district council area my school is in?
    Follow this link (http://local.direct.gov.uk/LDGRedirect/Start.do?mode=1) to direct.gov.uk and fill in your address. The website will then tell you which district council area your school premises are in.

    There is no contractor for my area, how can I get cartons recycled from my school?
    We are still working on finding contractors to collect cartons from schools in some parts of the country. If there is not a contractor collecting cartons in your area, please contact us on recyclingofficer.uk@tetrapak.com. Please make sure you include the name of the district council where your school is based. It will also be useful if you tell us who currently collects your waste for recycling. We will store your information on our database until we have a contractor for your area. We will email you to tell you when we have a contractor to cover your area.

    How do I calculate the weight of the cartons we produce?
    There are a number of ways to do this:

    1. You may know how many cartons you use. In which case, you can multiply that by the average weight of a carton. An average dry weight for a carton is 20g. Please note, this is an average carton weight taken across all pack sizes. Just a couple of teaspoons of liquid in a carton can weigh as much as the package itself. Contractors may also reject cartons material that contain too much liquid.
    2. You may know the total weight/volume of the waste you dispose of and if you don’t know it is easy to find out. A simple waste audit will tell you the percentage of that material that is made up of cartons. This can be a fun activity for a class to do.

    An 1100 litre bin can hold approximately 80-100kg of washed and squashed cartons.

    If you have any further questions about quotes, try looking at the FAQs.

    All the information in this box can also be found in the FAQs. If you want a printable list of all the relevant information, you need only print the FAQs page and the two schools pages.

    More information about using the service

    What size container will I have?
    Your contractor will be able to provide you with advice on the most appropriate container for your material and the frequency you need. The containers available vary from contractor to contractor, but most contractors do a range of containers suitable for collections as small as one bag to as large as commercial compactors.

    What things can I put in my collection?
    This varies from contractor to contractor as some contractors will collect cartons with other materials. Please check with your contractor or consult the details of your scheme provided by your contractor.

    All types of paper based liquid food and drinks cartons*, such as those made by Tetra Pak, can be recycled using the scheme. Please wash and squash before recycling your cartons.

    Please do not put anything other than the items listed by your contactor into your recycling bin, as it will contaminate the whole load.

    *Please do not put plastic bags, cans, cardboard, food or plastic bottles in the collection unless your contractor has told you that they can take them in the same recycling container.

    Do I have to remove the plastic cap or straw from my carton before recycling?
    No. The caps and straws can be left on. They will be removed during the recycling process.

    Do I need to wash and squash my cartons?
    We advise that you wash/rinse your cartons to reduce any potential problems with odour or pests. You also need to squash your cartons as otherwise you will be paying to dispose of air or liquid and you won’t be using your bin to its full capacity. Remember that just a couple of teaspoons of liquid in a carton can weigh as much as the package itself. If you leave liquid in the container it can contaminate the material for recycling. This might result in the contractor rejecting the load and you incurring additional costs.

    All the information in this box can also be found in the FAQs. If you want a printable list of all the relevant information, you need only print the FAQs page and the two schools pages.

    More information about our facilitation of this service

    We have worked with our industry partners, ACE UK, to facilitate this service. The service is not provided by us, but by the contractors we use for the household collections.

    All quotations offered by the contractors and accepted by any commercial business and services supplied thereafter, will constitute an agreement between those parties. Tetra Pak Ltd and ACE UK will not be party to, or deemed to be involved in any way with such agreements between the two parties.

    All the information in this box can also be found in the FAQs. If you want a printable list of all the relevant information, you need only print the FAQs page and the two schools pages.

    More information about the phases

    What is Phase One?
    Phase One was the first part of setting up the Schools Carton Recycling Service. It involved negotiating with our contractors, developing the service and this website. It is now complete and we will begin working on Phase Two.

    What is Phase Two?
    We recognise that there can sometimes be problems with setting up new recycling schemes in schools. So Phase Two is the second part of our Schools Carton Recycling Service project and is about helping schools find the easiest way to set up a their carton recycling scheme within the school grounds.

    Obviously we haven’t got the resources to help every single one of the 32,000 schools and colleges in the UK to set up their scheme. So instead, we will be working up a comprehensive solution that investigates, and addresses many of the main barriers faced when recycling cartons in the majority of schools (time, logistics etc.). We expect that the outcome may be the result of a number of trials and that it will be in the form of a simple ‘how to’ document. We will try to take into account most of the different ways of dealing with schools milk and recycling in different schools.

    Please remember that Phase Two involves undertaking a significant amount of work and it will take us, at the minimum, several months to complete.

    Click here to find out how to get information about Phase Two when it is ready.

    Please note: Phase Two will not be a cost neutral solution.

    All the information in this box can also be found in the FAQs. If you want a printable list of all the relevant information, you need only print the FAQs page and the two schools pages.