IN Brief:
- ACE UK says 90% of UK local authorities were collecting liquid cartons at the kerbside by August.
- Its white paper proposes greater transparency over packaging EPR spending and sorting outcomes.
- The group wants collected cartons directed into appropriate recycling streams rather than lost to other treatment.
The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment UK (ACE UK) is seeking stronger accountability for sorting and recycling liquid food and drink cartons. Its new white paper proposes linking packaging extended producer responsibility funding more explicitly to collection, separation and reprocessing, so the number of cartons accepted at the kerbside can be assessed against material actually recovered.
The paper, presented at the House of Commons, is titled Getting Liquid Carton Recycling Sorted. It brings together recommendations covering collection systems, sorting infrastructure and the final destination of used cartons. ACE UK wants the four UK governments to make the route from household collection through to dedicated reprocessing more transparent and reliable.
Liquid food and drink cartons are usually composite packages. Fibre provides much of the body of the container, while polymer layers create liquid barriers; some aseptic structures also include aluminium. Their construction is relevant because recovering materials from a composite pack is different from processing ordinary paper or a single-polymer container. Suitable collection and separation are needed to provide a consistent feedstock to facilities equipped for carton recovery.
ACE UK reports that 90% of UK local authorities offered kerbside carton collections by August 2026. That service coverage gives households a route to dispose of the packs separately, but cartons still have to be identified and recovered after entering collection and sorting systems. Their final destination depends on the material streams handled by each facility and on access to dedicated recycling capacity.
The first recommendation would connect packaging extended producer responsibility (pEPR) fees more directly to measurable investment in collection, sorting and reprocessing. ACE UK wants PackUK to publish a transparent mechanism showing how producer-funded payments support those activities. It argues that higher charges should be accompanied by demonstrable improvements in sorting and recovery.
Under the current EPR framework, qualifying packaging producers help fund household packaging waste management through charges administered by PackUK. Local authority payments are based on modelled efficient costs for collecting, managing, recycling and disposing of packaging. ACE UK’s proposed accounting mechanism would add transparency over how that funding translates into working sorting and reprocessing capacity.
The route through a materials recovery facility influences the value of packaging designed for recycling. A carton can be accepted by a household service but still fail to reach an appropriate reprocessor if it is mixed into an unsuitable material stream. Collection instructions, sorting equipment and contracts for recovered material therefore affect the quantities available for specialised carton treatment.
ACE UK’s second recommendation would extend kerbside access to councils that have yet to introduce the service and make collection arrangements more consistent. The industry body favours collecting cartons with plastics and metals, rather than paper and cardboard. Keeping composite cartons in a suitable stream can improve their prospects of separation before transfer to a reprocessing plant.
WRAP guidance for England addresses chilled and aseptic cartons within Simpler Recycling collection arrangements. Composite cartons combine paper fibres with polymer barrier layers and, in some aseptic formats, aluminium. The collection route must account for this construction because facilities processing conventional paper or plastics alone may not be configured to separate and recover all of those materials.
ACE UK’s third recommendation is a legal duty to demonstrate that collected materials have been sorted into appropriate streams and sent to suitable facilities where available. Its proposed safeguard is intended to limit the diversion of cartons into other waste flows, energy recovery or landfill after households have presented them for recycling.
Collection coverage, sorting performance and recovered output measure different parts of the chain. A council may report that cartons are accepted for recycling even when only part of the collected volume is separated for dedicated treatment. ACE UK wants local authority performance assessments to capture both collection rates and recycling outcomes rather than treating access to a service as the final measure.
Recognition and separation at a sorting plant depend on the incoming material mix, equipment settings, contamination levels and a buyer or processor for the resulting output. Reprocessors, in turn, require suitable volumes and quality to operate effectively. Changes at the collection stage can influence the reliability of that feedstock, as can investment in sorting equipment and domestic recovery capacity.
The proposed roadmap runs to 2030 and couples consistent carton collection with transparent EPR investment, performance measurements and additional domestic reprocessing. ACE UK is asking the four UK governments, local authorities and waste operators to adopt these changes; they are industry recommendations rather than new statutory requirements.
More consistent separation would give carton reprocessors a more predictable feed of suitable material, while enabling producers and waste authorities to compare collection expenditure with the quantity recovered. Decisions about funding, collection arrangements and reporting remain with governments, PackUK, councils and operators as the white paper’s proposals are considered.
