Valio continues use of 100% renewable Tetra Pak carton following trial

29-Apr-2015 - Last updated on 30-Apr-2015 at 12:39 GMT

Finnish dairy Valio will continue use of Tetra Pak's 100% renewable carton, but not with the lactose-free milk it was trialled with.

From May 1, Valio Luomu organic milk and sour milk will be available in Finland in Tetra Pak's 100% renewable one litre Tetra Rex Bio-based carton.

Valio trialled the 100% renewable carton, which combines Braskem bio-based plastic derived from Brazilian sugar cane and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paperboard, with its Eila lactose-free, semi-skimmed milk between January and March 2015.

Following the trial, Valio gathered feedback from 1,500 Finnish consumers through an online survey.

"The majority of respondents said their interest towards Valio products would grow along with fully renewable packages," Valio said in a statement.

Valio has, however, opted not to continue use of the Tetra Rex Bio-based carton with its Eila lactose-free, semi-skimmed milk.

"During the test phase, we received very positive feedback from the consumers and therefore it is natural to move towards a permanent use of fully renewable milk cartons," said Mirva Tollet, category manager, Valio.

"We start to use the 100% renewable packages in our organic milk, because the buyers of organic products appreciate even more ecological packages especially high," she said.

Valio does, however, hope to extend use of the carton to other liquid dairy products.

"The deployment of completely renewable milk cartons in larger scale must be done gradually, as the availability of renewable plastic used in packages still is limited," the company said.

Global roll-out

In April, following the Finnish trial, Tetra Pak announced the Tetra Rex Bio-based carton would be rolled out globally.

Christina Chester, product director for gable top cartons, Tetra Pak, told DairyReporter.com the carton would be deployed to European customers "in the not too distant future."

Within two weeks, Arla Foods' Eko organic milk was available to Swedish consumers in the 100% renewable one litre carton.

Anna-Karin Modin-Edman, sustainability manager, Arla Sweden, told DairyReporter: "Arla Foods has a target to reduce the climate impact of our packaging and we want to increase the share of renewable and recyclable packaging material."

"The bio-based carton delivers on all these goals."

She added that Arla Sweden would "evaluate the market response and decide on further expansion based on that."