A Switzerland-based food packaging and processing company has partnered with social enterprises that promote and produce eco-creative products, to create furniture out of Used Beverage Cartons (UBC).
Tetra Pak previously launched a “Food Safety and Beverage Carton Recycling Forum” in 2019 to give importance to taking care of environmental health through the promotion of cartons and UBC recycling.
In 2020, the company’s initiatives included working with social enterprises, waste collection partners and recyclers to produce durable materials from used beverage cartons.
JunkNot, one of their small-scale partners, features pieces entirely made from recycled materials in their first collection “Araling Mesa at Upuan (Study Table and Chair).”
The table and chair set used reclaimed wood pallets, five kilos of used beverage cartons and half a kilo of plastic waste.
“I am inspired to incorporate used beverage cartons boards in my design. Instead of incinerating our waste or it ending up in the ocean or in a landfill, with this upcycling solution, we can keep waste at home in a functional way,” JunkNot Founder Willie Garcia said.
Garcia is a licensed interior designer, also known to be a “green advocate” that turns trash into treasure. She also focuses on job opportunities for women.
Recently, Tetra Pak Philippines also had a collaboration with Green Antz Builders, an eco-friendly provider of building and housing solutions, to carry out their “Project ReBins.”
The project encourages consumers to drop off their UBCs, has drop-off booths in key retail areas in Metro Manila.
In years of gearing up towards sustainability, a total of 1.3 tons of UBCs have been collected by the company.
The Swiss food packaging and processing company in the Philippines is also working on creating sustainable packaging made solely from plant-based materials that are fully renewable, fully recyclable and carbon-neutral. —Raheema Velasco
