Recycling : Walls made from recycled beverage cartons

A SIG-funded project to recycle used beverage cartons has received a A$1.74 million grant from the Australian Government and the New South Wales (NSW) Government to build a A$5 million facility that will turn used beverage cartons and paper cups into high-quality building materials. The project is funded by the Australian Government's Recycling Modernisation Fund and the NSW Government's Waste Less, Recycle More initiative.

All involved are confident that the facility will create a new market for recycled building materials - similar to recycled glass roads, and that more packaging will become 100 per cent recyclable, in line with Australia's national packaging targets.

This project is the first time SIG and Tetra Pak have worked together in Australia under the umbrella of the Global Recycling Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (GRACE). It is a joint initiative with sustainable buildings materials producer saveBOARD and is supported by Freightways and Closed Loop.

Australia's first saveBOARD facility will process beverage packaging based on raw cardboard, including cardboard packaging with and without aluminium collected through a deposit system, and coffee cups contributed through the Simply Cups recycling programme. In addition, the company will source material from Shred-X, a document recycling company.

With additional materials from industrial processes, these materials will be used to produce high-performance, low-carbon building materials that replace gypsum board, particle board and OSB and can be used for interior and exterior designs.

The saveBOARD process uses heat and compression to bond the materials together without the need for adhesives or other chemical additives. This results in a clean product with no volatile organic compounds that is suitable for use in residential and commercial buildings.