The idea of recycling is getting wider across the globe, taking into account that 49 per cent of cartons are recycled in the European Union, whereas the equivalent figure for the US is just 16 per cent. Designer Pushan Panda offers a new way how to separate plastic from a carton, Springwise reports.
Modern technologies offer many options for designing paper drinks cartons, for example, for milk. Now, the designers allow the user to tear the paper-based parts of a carton away from the inner plastic liner.
To support an ecological way of life, designer Pushan Panda has developed a packaging design that allows consumers to easily separate the layers by tearing the paper carton in half. That innovative Bruk has two layers, and the inner HDPE liner can then be easily removed and recycled separately from the cardboard. This means that the whole carton is recyclable using standard equipment. Bruk also uses less plastic overall than a conventional carton.
“We designed Bruk to be intuitive and inclusive, easy for everyone regardless of physical ability,” Panda’s website explains.
Paper drinks cartons for our most-beloved beverages
From a consumer perspective, the Bruk design is intuitive and familiar – resembling cartons that are already on the market.
Paper drinks cartons are used for many of our most beloved beverages. Annually, around 900,000 tonnes of beverage cartons are put on the market in the EU, with the majority being used for dairy products. The paper exterior of these cartons provides consumers with a comforting sense of sustainability, and it is true that they can be recycled at scale.
However, in standard drinks cartons, the paper is interspersed with layers of plastic. These layers must be separated using a special process that is expensive and not readily available in every region.
