Hong Kong drinks giant Vitasoy launches recycling of Tetra Pak cartons, starting with schools

A pilot scheme will include recycling bins, workshops and a mobile education centre. The company plans to extend the programme to include the general public

Tetra Pak cartons need specialist recycling due to their aluminium, polythene and paper layers. Some 74 per cent of drink cartons in landfills are from Vitasoy

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Vitasoy Hong Kong CEO Dorcas Lau at the Vitasoy factory in Tuen Mun. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Published: 12:40pm, 11 Oct 2019Updated: 5:56pm, 12 Oct 2019

Hong Kong drinks manufacturer Vitasoy has begun a pilot scheme to recycle Tetra Pak cartons, which it and many other drink manufacturers use for packaging.

Dorcas Lau Shing-suet, Vitasoy’s CEO, says the scheme will enable the company to create an education, collection and recycling programme in partnership with Secure Information Disposal Services (SSID), which operates a waste management plant in the city’s Yuen Long district.

The 79-year-old company launched the scheme on Tuesday. It will see recycling bins placed in more than 75 schools, and a “mobile education centre” fitted with recycling bins and learning resources travel to schools and housing estates.

The company will roll out the scheme citywide, but Lau cannot say yet when that will happen. “I think we always wanted to do something to tackle used paper carton waste in Hong Kong. But because there wasn’t a facility able to do the recycling, we didn’t take any serious moves until now,” Lau says.

Vitasoy products are ubiquitous in Hong Kong, and are mostly sold in Tetra Pak cartons. Photo: Winson Wong

As part of the programme, Vitasoy will collaborate with Hong Kong Polytechnic University to organise environmental workshops and work with students in its School of Design to make objects from the paper pulp extracted from recycled cartons. Lau says the company is putting Vitasoy recycling bins in schools first to instil the recycling habit in young people.