ANNOUNCEMENTS
Rapid Urbanisation and change in lifestyle has made people to depend more on packaged food. With fast paced economic growth accompanied by change in standard of life & consumption patterns, it has seen increasing demand of packed food products. Around 14 billion of Tetra Pak cartons filled with juice, milk and other liquid are served everyday throughout the globe. This huge amount of Tetra Pak Carton has created a situation where Used Beverage Carton has become an issue in waste management. UBCs management has emerged as one of the environmental challenges of present times. The situation gets worse with increase in population. Due to lack of awareness, cities of South Asia are facing inefficient UBC management system. Millions of cartons are used and discarded into landfills and being non-biodegradable they remain in environment for 1000 years. Though beverage cartons are 100% recyclable but due to lack of awareness they end up into dumpsites. Thus this study was conducted with an aim to assess the total quantum of UBCs generated and recycled in 5 sample cities in India with an objective to identify the gaps in the collection and recycling system. To achieve the aim, a survey with framed questionnaire was conducted to analyse the entire value chain of UBCs and roles & responsibilities of each stakeholder involved in the system. This study assesses the obstacles in the existing UBC management chain and summarise some potentials for improvisation. The study reveals that there is very less awareness for UBCs recycling and major of the recycling is undertaken by informal sector. Study findings also revealed that there is lack of information about technologies for separating paper and Poly-Al layers which is a huge obstacle for Beverage cartons recycling.
