The first fully renewable carton can be found on retail shelves in Finland. The Tetra Rex biobased package is created purely out of a combination of plastics derived from plants and paperboard.

Finnish dairy producer Valio is the first company to go to market with the carton. Releasing it on a trial run, the company chose it as the temporary container for its lactose-free semi-skimmed milk drink. After a few months, Valio will use customer feedback to decide whether to adopt the carton more broadly. 

The product is available in one-liter capacity Tetra Rex biobased packages, with a TwistCap opening. They will be produced at Valio’s Jyväskylä dairy in Finland, using a standard Tetra Pak TR/28 filling machine.

The low-density polyethylene used to create the laminate film for the carton and the neck of the opening, together with the high-density polyethylene used for the cap, are all derived from sugar cane. These plastics are traceable to their origins. To communicate the full renewability factor to the consumer, the word “biobased” is printed on the Tetra Rex package.

Tetra Pak has been increasing the use of renewable materials in its own packages, as well as working to inform the industry of resource scarcity. Recently, the company released a survey of packaging professionals that revealed a growing number of them are aware of the business impacts connected to natural resource scarcity, but more education is necessary.

For more information: Simona Gatta, Tetra Pak, +39 059 89 8872, simona.gatta@tetrapak.com, www.tetrapak.com.