Must depend where - we can take ours at the local recycling centre in the village, special named skip for them and everything. Mind you, they probably just then tip them in a hole in the ground.
(I'm astonished by what can be recycled in our commune, right down to 'stale bread'! Although I have kids, so we recycle ours into the ducks.)
Tetra Paks can't be recycled in either of the Basels. Into the bin they go, once I've squashed them to take up less pay-by-volume space.
I understand that Switzerland has no land fills -- everything gets incinerated! I hope they capture all the products of combustion ... and bury them ...
Tetra Pak cartons are recycled in some countries, although this is a fairly scattered service. As they are composed of cardboard, polythene and aluminium, traditional recycling is not possible.
The cartons are basically soaked to remove the card. The pulp is then used for various paper products. The remaining polythene and aluminium is used in a variety of processes. For example, in Germany it is used as a catalyst in cement production.
Recycling will probably only increase due to public presuure or stronger legislation.
Take a close look at a Swiss garbage incineration plant. You'll notice that a very big part of the whole building consists of filter systems.
As for Tetra Pak: I use them to stuff stuff (ha ha) into them to reduce the volume, which again reduces the expenses for bags. You wouldn't believe how much you can squeeze into a 1 liter Tetra Brik. When my American Other Half is in the USA and I am here, I fill 1 liter with non-recyclable garbage -- every other week, mind you. That means I'd need way more than a year to fill one 35 liter bag. I think that's a pretty modest environmental footprint.
Go one step further in your environmental awareness and don't feed bread to ducks (or any other bird). It's basically the equivalent of you sitting in a playground tossing junk food at the kiddies.
I forgot to mention that only the cartons for ultra-pasteurized milk contains that alumin(i)um layer. It's that stuff that can be kept forever, only faintly tastes like milk and doesn't turn sour but eventually changes to a state between dishwashing water and toxic waste. Normal milk cartons don't contain alumin(i)um.
Good to know, but don't worry too much on their behalf - we almost never have bread leftover anyway, so it's a more of a 3-4 times a year treat for them. Even junk food's ok in moderation!
(I'm constantly amazed, though, by how full up the stale bread skip is at our recycling place - why on earth don't people just buy a lump off the 'by the weight' large bread on the counter, rather than taking two slices of a loaf and tossing the rest?)
Old thread I know (hey but the search function worked ).
I was looking at this milk-tetra today, most of this should go into the cardboard-collection. There is no aluminium lining here. Only the top bit where the lid is is plastic.
Times - and production methods - have changed since 2010. Any info on this? (It says bin but that's because of the plastic bit and people being lazy).
It says bin because paper and cardboard that have been in contact with wet food should not be recycled. No used pizza boxes with cheese stuck to them and oil stains on the bottom; no used TV dinner boxes; no empty milk cartons. (By the way, that's not a Tetra Pak, at least not the long-life version that Captain Greybeard referred to, above.)
The same goes for aluminium baking foil, by the way -- don't dump used baking foil in the cans recycling bin!
Yes. Although I assume that if it just has juice or wine, or something similar, on it, it should be OK -- as that would be similar to the residue on aluminium cans. And now that I think about it, all steel food cans are recyclable and get washed at the recycling centre, so I guess some loose food on the aluminium foil is OK -- just not burned-on stuff, or food scrunched up in the middle of an aluminium foil ball.
It says bin because paper and cardboard that have been in contact with wet food should not be recycled. No used pizza boxes with cheese stuck to them and oil stains on the bottom; no used TV dinner boxes; no empty milk cartons
That's not the rules where I live. Follow your local rules since they vary.
Tetra-Pak (or other similar packaging) is not cardboard because it's a mixed material and needs to be treated differently.
You can look for a collection point for these here (every Aldi, some Spar and Volg, some recycling depots):
I cut the plastic bit off the top and put it in the plastic milk bottle recycle bin, then fold up the rest and bin it. Its a bit of a faff but I feel a little better for doing at least that. Wish we had glass milk bottles still.
To be honest - at least in my time - Switzerland never had glass-bottles
We used to get the milk from the milk-collection-hut in the evenings with one of those (no, not because I'm darn old but because we lived in the country ) and after there was a salmonellae case, the family changed to Migros, which sold it in tetra-packs.