TL;DR: Recycling Isn’t the Hero We Thought It Was

• Recycling has been marketed as the silver bullet for sustainability, but it’s often a distraction from the real issues: overproduction, corporate irresponsibility, and lack of proper infrastructure.

• Companies like Tetra Pak, Coca-Cola, and BP have used slick marketing to shift the blame onto consumers while continuing unsustainable practices.

• Tetra Paks, despite their eco-friendly image, are rarely recycled and often end up in landfill or downcycled into short-lived products.

• The solution? Focus on reducing, reusing, and holding corporations accountable—not just tossing things into the “right” bin.

• Let’s stop treating recycling as our first move and start redesigning the system from the ground up.

💡 Want to cut through the greenwashing and make real change? Our sustainability training helps individuals and businesses move beyond the myths and into action.

Recycling: The Great Green Illusion?

Right off...

TL;DR: Is Tetra Pak Really Sustainable?

• Tetra Pak cartons are made from layered cardboard, plastic, and aluminium — which makes them difficult to recycle.

• While they claim to be 100% recyclable, most recycling facilities can’t process them.

• Only 26% of Tetra Pak is recycled globally — the rest ends up in landfill or oceans.

• Aluminium cans and glass bottles are more sustainable and easier to recycle in a closed-loop system.

• The best option? Reduce and reuse — choose filtered water, glass bottles, or homemade plant milks where possible.

Have you ever wondered about Tetra Pak cartons? They are becoming more and more common on our shop shelves - just how green a solution are they?

The environmental downsides to plastic bottles are mostly well known: they are expensive to recycle, recycling rates are low, there are limited options for the use of recycled plastic material, and plastic litter can wreak havoc with the environment. So, any person or business w...

This is difficult to determine, because there is more than one issue at stake.

In terms of Co2 emission at the production stage, Tetra Pak cartons are the winner, followed by plastic, then aluminium, and surprisingly then glass is the worst.

Glass is the highest producer of carbon emissions because of what energy is required to produce it BUT if you are reusing the glass bottles, their shelf life is much greater than the other materials, and so it could be considered a more sustainable product.

In terms of  plastic pollution and the ability to do closed loop recycling, glass and aluminium are the winners. And as you recycle them more times, their carbon emissions start to fall back down towards cartons and plastic. As per Ethical Consumer, it depends on how the item is going to be used and then disposed of.

Some are better in terms of their carbon emissions and others tie into the closed loop of reuse/recycling and affecting waste output.

Glass and Aluminium 

• They can be recycl...