no but I'll buy you some wine - check this nonsense out...
LCBO's new bottles spark old whine
Environmentalist says wine packages don't get recycled, end up going to landfill instead
But LCBO says boxed wines create less waste than ones in bottles
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario has introduced 35 Tetra Pak wines into 600 Ontario stores since last year, citing environmental friendliness as its rationale. But some environmentalists say the packages just add to the huge volumes of landfill in the province.
In environmental terms, "Tetra Pak is the Hummer and glass is the bicycle," says Gord Perks, an activist with Toronto Environmental Alliance "I don't think we should even be allowing Tetra Pak to be used as a beverage container.
"The majority of the material in a Tetra Pak does not get recycled."
There is currently no recycling facility in Ontario for Tetra Paks. The only paper mill that handles the province's Tetra Pak recycling is in Michigan.
The Tetra Pak launch began last summer with French Rabbit wines and the LCBO expects to introduce about 35 more boxed wines in the coming year.
According to LCBO spokesperson Chris Layton, "It was the most successful wine launch ever, and consumers really embraced it."
Wineries that supply the LCBO are switching from glass to Tetra Paks because the package "creates 90 per cent less waste than the average glass bottle," says Lyle Clarke, project leader for LCBO's Environment Strategy. "Waste that doesn't exist is waste you don't have to recycle."
Perks argues the statistic is based on an internally run study by Tetra Pak.
"I've been working in waste management as an environmentalist for 20 years and I've never seen as spurious a claim as the LCBO's that these are truly recyclable packages."
A Tetra Pak is made up of three materials — thin plastic outside (20 per cent), aluminum inside (5 per cent) and a fibrous middle layer (75 per cent).
Perks says no technology exists to economically separate the layers on a mass scale.
Not so, says Christina Seidel, executive director of the Recycling Council of Alberta. She says such technology does exist but only if it's supported by a market to make the recycling economically feasible.
In Alberta, unlike Ontario, the cost of recycling Tetra Pak products is built into the purchase price, she says. "You pay what it costs to have your container recycled."
And, because there's a deposit return system for Tetra Paks, about 60 per cent of such packaging sold is recycled, says Seidel. However, although there are future plans for it, wine is currently not sold in Tetra Paks in Alberta.
When Tetra Paks go through the process of recycling, much of the recyclable material is lost. Due to a tedious soaking and separating process, cross-contamination between the layers often leaves them unrecyclable.
"The plastic layer, even if it was separated properly, can't be recycled at all," Perks says.
"It's a bad package. Glass is vastly easier to recycle than Tetra Pak."
Until this year, Tetra Pak products have been imported from Italy and the United States. But, on June 28, LanPak Inc., with support from Tetra Pak and the LCBO, opened Ontario's first Tetra Pak plant in Richmond Hill, focusing solely on packaging North American wines. A second facility, called Vinfirst Inc., will soon open in St. Catharines.
Tetra Pak president Evelyn Watson says in a news release that more than 2 billion litres of wine came in the company's containers around the world last year.
The LCBO says Ontario consumers have purchased nearly 1 million litres of wine in them in the past 10 months.
"It really has become a worldwide phenomenon as an alternative to glass," says Clarke.
Clarke and Perks confirmed about 15 per cent of Tetra Paks sold make it to recycling programs, as opposed to the bottle-recovery rate of 60 per cent, but the LCBO has plans to eliminate 10 million kilograms of waste each year until 2008. "We work closely with Stewardship Ontario and the municipalities," says Clarke.
"The LCBO wants to increase the recovery rate on our containers to 80 per cent via the blue box program."
Perks says the LCBO is ignoring the environmental consequences of making Tetra Paks.
"The bottle is still a better choice because it's easier to recycle, it has potential for reuse and, finally, because it is actually put out for recycling — and people are not putting their Tetra Paks out for recycling."
That's despite the fact that 80 per cent of Ontario municipalities accept them for recycling.
LCBO's Clarke argues that even if no Tetra Paks are recycled, and 5 per cent of bottles go to landfill, the glass ultimately will take up more room.
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