The Municipal Material Cycle of beverage cartons and hygiene paper, which already operates successfully in 15 Slovene municipalities, will soon come to life in Slovakia. Ivona Urbanova has been chosen to take over the position of National Coordinator of the project in Slovakia to ensure the establishment and development of this important circular economy program. Ivona Urbanova is an environmental expert and independent waste management consultant. She has many years of experience in developing new solutions in waste management - as sales manager in international waste management company FCC in Slovakia and later as an independent consultant, she worked closely with industry and municipalities to help them on the path to sustainable development and circular solutions in the field of waste.

As national coordinator for Slovakia, Ivona Urbanova will be responsible for the establishment and development of Municipal Material Cycles as well as the acquisition of supporters and members in the participating municipalities. One of the most important roles of this circular economy program is to raise awareness of the municipal government, institutions, and local public, that they can encourage more sustainable development of their community and thus positively impact the development of the local community, the economy and the environment in the long term.

The municipal material cycle of beverage cartons and hygiene paper packaging can be set up in any municipality or city in the EU that has a municipal waste separation system in place. Therefore, we plan to expand the MMC area also to other interested EU countries.

ACE, The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment, and its members SIG Combibloc, BillerudKorsnäs, Elopak, Stora Enso and Tetra Pak, have set the industry’s vision for the future. They claim to 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 1.5o C aligned science-based targets are included in the ten commitments.

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

• made only from renewable and /or recycled material
• fully recyclable and recycled
• made entirely from sustainably sourced raw materials
• the packaging solution with the lowest carbon footprint

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.

Municipal material cycles of used beverage cartons and hygiene paper

In Slovenia, we recycle app 5,5% of used beverage carton in a single circular economy project, named Municipal material cycle. These are closed material loops of used beverage cartons, collected by households and institutions in certain municipalities and hygiene paper products that are made of them for the same local community from collected UBCs.

The project is active in 15 municipalities in Slovenia, where waste management is handled by Voka Snaga Ljubljana, Komunala Novo mesto, Komunala Brežice and Komunala Kranj.

Important facts about beverage cartons

The material

Beverage cartons are made of (on average, by weight):

• 75% paperboard, a renewable material when the forests are managed responsibly
• 20% polymers, mostly polyethylene, to prevent leakage
• 5% aluminium, to protect drinks from light and oxygen

Beverage cartons recycling

Paper fibres from beverage cartons are highly desirable as a source of recovered fibre. After collection and sorting, the material is sent to paper recycling mills with dedicated equipment, where the beverage cartons are recycled in a process where water and agitation separate the paper fibres from the plastic and aluminium. The process of cleaning the materials is chemical-free; cellulose fibres are being sterilized by steam on 120 ^oC.

UBC can be recycled into new, high quality hygiene paper products, such as tissues, handkerchiefs and toilet paper. This way we protect wood and forests, valuable natural source.

Polymers and aluminium (PolyAl) are handled as a separate material stream, used within the construction and other industries.

We researched the impact of municipal material cycles in MMC Novo mesto municipalities. The results show a very high level of environmental awareness, with over 70% agreement on importance of environment preservation activities. People are concerned about their local waste management activities and practices.

The research also shows that almost everyone in MMC Novo mesto (99%) supports the use of recycled hygiene paper from local material cycle to be used in public institutions and companies.

The research was conducted by Mediana research agency, took place in 8 municipalities that forms MMC Novo mesto (Novo mesto, Dolenjske Toplica, Mirna Peč, Straža, Šentjernej, Škocjan, Šmarješke Toplice and Žužemberk). 404 respondents were interviewed, half of them thru web panel and the other half over the phone. There were 100 public institution employees included in the research - they are actual users of recycled hygiene paper products. We asked them for more detailed quality assessment of our products – multipurpose towels, handkerchiefs, and toilet paper.

We were testing the colour, absorbance, touch and feel and general quality compared to regular (not recycled) products. On the scale from 1 to 5, all our products were given high likeability scores on all tested characteristics – the highest ranked was the absorbance (4.0), followed by the colour (3.9), touch & feel and general quality (3.8).

Respondents of the research expressed very high (over 90%) awareness and concern for natural environment. The results show that over 80% of population in these municipalities highly appreciate individuals and organizations that are active in saving the environment. Over 80% of population already separate waste packaging, but they claim to put even more attention to beverage carton waste separation in the future, because of the MMC project. 90% of the population believe that such projects as municipal material cycle of waste beverage carton and recycled hygiene paper are important for environmental protection and they support the idea that local public institutions prefer purchase of those materials.