Empty milk cartons, with a twist, transform into beautiful benches and trash bins at the Shanghai World Expo. Tetra Pak's creativity not only catches the eye but also opens a window for further development in this industry.

Waste recycling and reuse have long been a challenging ideal in China. Unlike Japan's eight categories of waste bins, China struggles to differentiate between recyclable and non-recyclable waste, let alone transform these discarded items into valuable resources, resulting in widespread resource waste.

On the contrary, many Western countries, excluding Japan, are actually doing quite well in the area of resource recycling. A lot of discarded items have numerous uses. Old plastics can be reused, paper can be recycled, and even toothpaste tubes can be repurposed after recycling.

So, the Swedish company with a history of over 60 years, Tetra Pak, has partnered with a recycling enterprise to recycle and reuse used milk beverage cartons. This not only paves a new path for milk beverage packaging but also introduces a new reference model for resource conservation.

Stepping Forward in a New Environment

Tetra Pak, SIG Combibloc, and International Paper are hailed as the three giants in the liquid food paper packaging industry worldwide. With the growing environmental awareness and the intensifying market competition, liquid food packaging companies will face even more challenges.

According to journalists, the emergence of many new brands, such as Aikelin, has posed a significant challenge to these established paper packaging companies. The introduction of new products is gradually diluting the market share of these old brands, and many loyal customers are now "splitting their loyalty." Without robust technology and innovation capabilities, it will be difficult for these companies to gain market acceptance.

Former Tetra Pak clients, such as Mengniu and Yili, are also experimenting with new packaging. Li Hesun, President of Tetra Pak in China, stated, "As market competition intensifies, the connotations of Tetra Pak's business strategy will become richer." Tetra Pak's packaging primarily utilizes renewable resources and is recyclable, which is also a unique advantage. This led to the eco-friendly products, such as the environmental-friendly benches and trash bins, seen at the World Expo, which were made from recycled Tetra Pak milk packaging.

The launch of these products has provided packaging companies with a new approach. Industry insiders estimate that these eco-friendly products have immense market potential, with a conservative estimate of a market value of several hundred billion yuan, and a positive outlook for future development.

Due to their use of recycled milk cartons in eco-friendly products, which not only align with the current low-carbon lifestyle concept but also resonate with the public's aesthetic sense in terms of resource conservation, this is an emerging industry form supported by countries worldwide. Tetra Pak's eco-friendly products made their debut at the World Expo. Although it's a charitable endeavor, some have calculated that if this public welfare activity were to charge for participation, the revenue could exceed ten million.

In fact, this industry is not new; as early as the 1990s, the transformation of used packaging into new products had already made its debut in the market. China's domestic company, Hangzhou Fulun Eco-Cycle Technology Development Co., Ltd., has been engaged in related businesses all along. They purchase used liquid food paper packaging boxes, process them, and then manufacture new paper.

Industry experts believe that the growth of this industry will be a trend in future development, as countries around the world are placing a higher priority on resource utilization and are encouraging increased recycling and reuse. Particularly in the liquid food paper packaging sector, which consumes a significant amount of wood, there is an even greater emphasis on recycling and reuse.

So, how is the market situation for such a sunny industry?

Seeking raw materials

Every day, people around the world consume 14 billion liters of water, milk, juice, and other liquid foods. Delivering these liquid products fresh and safely to consumers is no longer a challenge. Data shows that the daily consumption of these liquid foods generates packaging that weighs billions of tons. This means that there is an ample supply of raw materials to produce eco-friendly products from packaging boxes.

Tetra Pak's relevant official told reporters that the company's aseptic composite paper packaging is made of a multilayer material consisting of 75% cardboard, 15% plastic, and 5% aluminum foil. Professionally processed, all these materials are recyclable and can be transformed into a variety of practical and eco-friendly products, such as benches, trash bins, and flooring, as we refer to them.

Tetra Pak currently collaborates with recycling enterprises to produce environmentally friendly products, all made from recycled beverage packaging. In fact, since 1998, Tetra Pak China has had a dedicated environmental team responsible for the research and development, as well as promotion, of the recycling of Tetra Pak packaging. Today, there are over a dozen composite paper packaging recycling plants in provinces and municipalities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Heilongjiang, and Fujian.

According to Yang Bin, Vice President of Tetra Pak China, Tetra Pak has transformed milk packaging into eco-friendly benches, primarily using Coloro Board technology. Today, in addition to Coloro Board products, Tetra Pak is also gradually utilizing recycled products such as recycled paper and塑木, as well as plastic particles and aluminum powder separated by the aluminum-plastic separation technology.

The maturity of technology has also been a key factor in the profit growth of eco-friendly products. In March 2009, Hangzhou Fulun Eco-Cycle Technology Development Co., Ltd. officially launched its aluminum-plastic separation production line. Within six months of operation, the recycling value of composite paper packaging increased by approximately 30%, and monthly sales revenue grew by 25%.

The maturity of technology also represents a new path for the industry's value-added growth.

The recycling journey can be quite challenging.

Since the raw materials for recycled eco-products are milk packaging, the key link in the development of this industrial chain is recycling.

There is a set of data to note: Tetra Pak has been involved in beverage paper packaging recycling since 1998. In 2004, the recycling volume was only 136 tons, which increased to 44,893 tons by the end of 2009, equivalent to 4.4 billion packages. It is projected that by the end of 2010, the number will exceed 7 billion packages, with a recycling rate of nearly 50% in the Beijing area. However, due to the lack of an effective垃圾分类 system, a significant amount of packaging has not been recovered.

Tetra Pak has made significant efforts to improve packaging recycling. Since 2004, the company has annually invested tens of millions of RMB, accumulating over 150 million RMB by 2010. The investment cost has not been inexpensive.

Yang Bin stated, "Our investments are primarily focused on the research and development, as well as the upgrade of technology for recycling and utilization, advancing the establishment of a socialized and市场化 recycling system for milk beverage paper packaging, which relies on the municipal waste recycling system, and on initiatives such as waste classification and recycling education."

In cities across the country, enterprises and individuals engaged in the recycling of milk beverage paper packaging are taking action. These recycling organizations sell the collected packaging to various recycling factories for再生 production.

Industry estimates suggest that with the current production capacity in the Chinese market, if the recycling rate of sales packaging boxes can reach over 70%, meeting production demands would not be an issue. However, the reality is that larger Chinese recycling enterprises still frequently face the problem of insufficient raw materials.

Clearly, the recycling issue remains a challenge. This is much better abroad, particularly in Japan, where recycling rates are high. This is mainly due to proactive promotion and the formation of environmental awareness among people. Therefore, for businesses that primarily use recycled milk packaging boxes as raw materials, the difficulty in recycling continues to be a problem they face.

However, Yang Bin is quite confident about it: "As long as we can produce value-added products from discarded packaging, the Tetra Pak packaging naturally becomes a raw material, with a market price. Then, we can leverage market forces to promote the recycling of Tetra Pak packaging."

Despite the numerous challenges in this sector, it is widely believed that the growth of liquid foods like milk in China will inevitably foster a sense of environmental recycling awareness among people. By then, the difficulties will no longer be insurmountable.