Virtually all of Hartwall’s beverage packaging can be recycled. Packaging materials comprise cardboard packages, labels, glass bottles, aluminium cans, recyclable plastic bottles and refillable plastic bottles (until summer 2009).
Finnish people are efficient at recycling beverage packaging. The 98% return rate for refillable glass and plastic bottles is high by international standards. The new recyclable plastic bottles will completely replace the refillable plastic bottle during 2009, and they also had a good return rate of 72% already in 2008. The return rate for deposit cans is about 89%.
Recycling system expanded
The drinks packaging tax on beverage packaging reutilised as raw material was abolished from 1 January 2008, and refillable bottles, deposit cans and recyclable plastic deposit bottles are now all taxed equally.
Along with the change in legislation, Hartwall and other players in the industry introduced new recyclable plastic deposit bottles. They are not reused as such, but their plastic is recovered. The aim is to utilise as large an amount of the plastic from recyclable plastic bottles as possible to manufacture new bottle blanks, but it can also be used to make other packaging materials or be utilised as a raw material for other industry. The new system has brought many bottles within the sphere of recycling that earlier were disposed of as waste, such as spring water and sports drink bottles.
Palautuspakkaus Oy (PALPA) ensures that end processors undertake to deal with materials in an environmentally friendly and ethical manner.
Recycling a fundamental pillar of operations
Hartwall is constantly developing new ways to use waste more efficiently, and recycling efforts have focused on starting with the individual. In this way, packaging plastics, cardboard and bottle tops will not be included in the waste at refuse dump sites.
- Waste is recycled at both the Lahti and Tornio production facilities.
- The aim is to minimise the amount of waste to be taken to the dump site.
- Materials and waste at the Lahti plant are sorted into more than ten different categories.
- The materials are recycled or they are utilised in energy production.
- There is only a small amount of hazardous waste, but it is also sorted and sent for appropriate treatment.