Smurfit Kappa to Construct State-of-the-Art Carton Recycling Plant in the Netherlands

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): European packaging major Smurfit Kappa has joined hands with HVC and Bluemats to establish a recycling plant for multi-layered beverage cartons- the first of its kind in the Netherlands. The proposed plant will also be capable of recycling single-use coffee cups.

The planned facility will have modern facilities and equipment to aid separation of multi-layered beverage cartons into paper, plastic and aluminium. The separated components will then be sorted, which will in turn be used to create new products. It must be noted that the country currently lacks infrastructure facilities to process hard-to-recycle products such as cartons and single-use coffee cups which contains multi-layered materials.

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The new recycling facility offers huge environmental benefits, as nearly 50% of the beverage cartons presently used in the country is either incinerated or discarded in general waste streams. The remaining half is exported to other countries for recycling.

The project combines Smurfit Kappa’s long-term expertise in state-of-the-art paper recycling installations and HVC’s sustainable waste collection expertise. The separation of materials will be handled by Bluemats.

Commenting on the partnership project, Henk Hoevers, VP of Paper Technology at Smurfit Kappa noted that the project will help in solving a very big challenge. Also, it will further push the high recycling rate of paper in the Netherlands. The plan is very much in line with the company’s Better Planet Packaging initiative that aims to reduce packaging waste.