TETRA PACK

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INTRODUCTION
Tetra Pak is the world's leading food processing and packaging solutions company. Tetra Pak is a multinational company of Swedish origin. It was founded in 1951 in Lund, Sweden, by Ruben Reusing and Erik Åkerlund. It was Erik Wallenberg who invented the tetrahedral package, today known as Tetra Classic. The company is part of the Tetra Laval group which also includes Sidle – who specialize in PET bottles – and DeLaval, a producer of dairy farming machinery and food processing equipment.
Ruben Rausing's sons Hans and Gad Rausing ran Tetra Pak from 1954 until 1985, taking the company from a seven-person concern to one of Sweden's largest corporations. At his death in 1983, Ruben Rausing was Sweden's richest person.



MATERIAL USED FOR MAKING TETRA PACK

Since about 2007, some wineries have started selling wines in 500 ml and 1 L Tetra Prisma Aseptic packages with enclosable screw caps. Although unsuited for long-term storage or aging of wines, they save weight and space and eliminate the concerns of glass bottle disposal, saving consumers money.
• Raw materials
To produce packaging materials, Tetra Pak uses paperboard (73%), plastic (22%) and – for aseptic packages - aluminum foil (5%). Raw materials production has the greatest environmental impact of all stages within the package life cycle.[9]
The paperboard is made from wood - a renewable resource. To secure responsible forestry, Tetra Pak works with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN) and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). In 2009, Tetra Pak delivered more than 2.3 billion FSC certified and labeled cartons.[10] The paperboard provides stiffness and stability to the package.
The plastic (polyethylene) is used in layers on both sides of the paper structure to protect the package from inside and outside moisture.[11]
Cartons designed for long life or high acidity content contain aluminum foil, which is about 6-micrometre (0.00024 in) thin.[11] This layer provides additional protection for the content against oxygen, bacteria, undesired flavors and light.
• Transportation
Through the square shape and low ratio of package-to-content, the use of space is optimized. Less transportation is thus needed for this type of package compared to most other shapes and materials. Transportation of packaging material to factories is also optimized (large rolls of material instead of prepared empty packages).[12] Aseptic packages also allows for transportation without consistent cooling, which also reduces the environmental footprint.[13]
• Food preservation
The food production phase contributes with a significantly greater part of greenhouse gases than the distribution phase does.[14] Prolonged shelf-life of packaged food (e.g. through aseptic technology) contributes to a reduced environmental footprint.
• Recycling
Tetra Pak packages can be fully recycled in some cities. Availability of recycling facilities, recycling methods and actual recycling rates vary from location to location. The actual recycling rate of carton packages was 33% in Europe in 2009, which has been continuously increasing since 1992.[19]