The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) has released figures showing that European beverage carton recovery and recycling rates rose in 1997.
Of the 823,000 tonnes of beverage cartons on the EU market, 37% were recovered, 20% of which were recycled. That represents an increase of 3% on 1996.
But recovery and recycling rates vary from EU Member to Member, said ACE, due to collection and sorting systems which are at different stages of development across Europe. And although 12 out of 15 Members have maintained or increased their overall recovery rates, the European average has dropped slightly.