The Beverage Carton Industry Releases Ten Year Roadmap for Sustainable Packaging

ACE, The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment, and its members SIG Combibloc, , Stora Enso and Tetra Pak, have set the industry’s vision for the future: we will deliver the most sustainable packaging for resilient food supply systems which is renewable, climate positive and circular.  

Through its robust and ambitious Roadmap, the industry commits to take action on all parts of the industry value chain, from sustainable sourcing to climate impact and recycling. Increasing the collection and recycling of beverage cartons to reach a 90% collection rate and at least a 70% recycling rate by 2030, and the decarbonisation of the industry’s value chain in line with the 1.5^o C aligned science-based targets are included in the ten commitments.

In line with the vision of ACE members, beverage cartons will be:

“The industry has set high and ambitious standards for the next ten years,” said Annick Carpentier, Director General of ACE. “We look forward to fostering a dialogue with EU decision makers to ensure that the necessary regulatory conditions are in place to support the industry’s journey towards beverage cartons as the sustainable packaging choice for today and tomorrow.”

Beverage cartons are a recyclable low carbon packaging solution that protects food and beverages, allowing their safe use and transport while also preventing food waste. With the commitments and targets set in the 2030 Roadmap, the industry will strive for its packaging to continue to actively contribute towards the  ambitions of the EU Green Deal, specifically climate neutrality, circularity, biodiversity and resilient food systems, while never compromising the health and safety of consumers.

“The industry continues to invest in innovation and technology to increase beverage carton recycling,” said Marcelle Peuckert, President of ACE. “The industry needs an enabling policy framework that  that will continue to support our investments and innovation over the next decade.”

ACE members have outlined clear deliverables, will report on the Roadmap’s overall progress on a regular basis, and will develop, add and adapt metrics should they not currently exist, also in partnership with others. You can find the industry Roadmap on ACE’s website.  

ABOUT ACE

ACE – The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment – provides a European platform for beverage carton manufacturers and their paperboard suppliers to benchmark and profile beverage cartons as a safe, circular, and sustainable packaging solution with low carbon benefits.

ACE members include beverage carton producers Tetra Pak, SIG Combibloc, and Elopak. They develop, manufacture, and market safe, circular, and sustainable systems for the packaging and distribution of food and beverages, and produce packaging material at 20 plants in Europe. Around 98% of the paperboard used by ACE members to produce beverage cartons in Europe is produced by Stora Enso in Skoghall (Sweden) and Imatra (Finland), and BillerudKorsnäs in Gävle and Frövi (Sweden), who are also members of ACE.