The team is quietly smiling today, after a thoroughly exhausting but satisfying Sunday spent conquering the rapids of Llangollen! Yes, our team takes part in all kinds of activities, and not just recycling events! Twenty four of our Tetra Pak team made it down to the white water of North Wales for a charity raft race – raising over £1,000 for Nightingale House Hospice.

Testing our fitness to its limits, we had a fantastic time using tactical manoeuvres and planning to get down to the bottom as quickly as possible. What a wonderful way to help raise money for charity and get some fresh air on a Sunday morning!

We are not resting on our laurels however, as different people across our company are involved in a whole range fundraising events this summer. Sian and Gaëlle have volunteered for the Ladies’ Midnight Walk on June 26th and will be helping out on the night!

If you register to participate http://www.nightingalehouse.co.uk/ladies-midnight-walk-2010, you might just be able to spot them as you are signing in. Not only that, but we will also be making sure everyone on the night is fully hydrated with water packed in our Tetra Pak cartons. So don’t forget to recycle them at the recycling bins provided…

Forgive me Readers, I have sinned. It has been at least six months since my last blog entry.

Given that it has been a long time, what subject could possibly make me get back on the keyboard to type out an entry?

The answer is juice, Cawston Press juice in particular. I have always been a fan of long-life apple juice because the convenience of keeping cartons of long life juice in the cupboard until I want to chill it suits my lifestyle.

I used to buy nice but plain apple juice because there were no fancier alternatives. Until Cawston Press (previously Cawston Vale) came on the sceen and mixed things up a little. This fabulous company has created lovely mixes such as apple and ginger, apple and elderflower, apple and rhubarb, but don’t worry, they do plain old apple juice too.

The first few varieties were good enough as far as I was concerned, but then they went and made an apple and beetroot mix too. It is utterly delicious and it comes in a carton, seventh heaven.

The good folks at Cawston Press also like to let people know that they use cartons because they seal in the goodness of their juice until you want to drink it.

The drinks have proved so popular that they now sell portion packs too. These are great for packed lunches and picnics, especially as the cartons can be flattened when empty and are easy to transport back home for recycling.

Here is where you can buy Cawston Press apple juices http://www.cawstonpress.com/cawston-press-stockists.html and if you don’t have a local stockist, you should click here are you can also buy their juices on-line http://www.ocado.com/webshop/getSearchProducts.do?clearTabs=yes&entry=cawston

We would love to hear what you think of the flavours.

Fay

Welcome to our shiny new Tetra Pak Whiteboard and our Environment Team blog. We hope you are having as much fun exploring it as we’ve had building it! I’m Sam Edgar. I used to be the Environment Officer and I now look after our external communications… let me show you around our whiteboard.

The whiteboard is really the hub of the action, where you can get access to all the fun and interactive parts of our sustainability site.  We’ve built this area so you can get to know the team behind all the work you see for cartons and the environment. Please get involved and find out a bit more about the fun side of what we do.

Have a good dig through the pages. Some of them are still being built, but don’t worry, they’ll be with us soon! Here is a flavour of what you can expect to find:

• Check out the hot topics, generated from your questions, comments and  the latest environmental stories
• Meet the team and explore our blog
• Find out what ‘we are loving’
• Check out the ‘carton fun’ section, bursting with all the wacky things people have done with cartons. Discover new carton crafts and  upload your own videos!
• Put us in the spotlight and ask your burning questions
• Put your investigator’s hat on and see what you can find out in the ‘did you know’ area…It’s more fun than a squashed tomato!

You might need to bring a torch if you visit any of our sites this Saturday….

Why?!?

Well, maybe it won’t be that dark, but we will be turning off all the signs and non-essential lighting on all our sites across the UK and Ireland to show our support for Earth Hour. Organised by WWF, Earth Hour aims to get people, businesses and communities around the World thinking about climate change and take steps to be responsible for the future.  In 2009, over 4,000 cities, in 88 countries were involved, reaching a whopping 1 billion people worldwide.

To get our employees on board, we are giving out candles for them to take home, and staff who sign up to Earth Hour on the WWF website will have the chance to win environmentally-friendly prizes like an energy efficient pamper hamper, a candle-lit food hamper or a wind up radio.

We are really passionate about this, and it fits in with our wider, global commitment as WWF Climate Savers members, to reduce carbon emissions by 10% by the end of 2010.

We’re hoping that lots of other businesses and individuals will switch off and join us this Saturday to make this year’s Earth Hour even more successful than the last! Sign up today at http://www.earthhour.org/Homepage.aspx

Sadly the time has come for me to say a fond farewell to Tetra Pak as I take up a new role at Tower Hamlets Borough council. I’ve had a fantastic two and a half years here, working with some great people and seeing immense strides made in carton recycling in the UK

And it’s great to go out on a high! 86% of Local Authorities now collect cartons for recycling, and nearly a quarter (24%) collect them at the kerbside, making it even easier for residents to recycle them.

One of the highlights of my time in this job has to be last year’s ‘How Do You Squash Yours?’; competition, where we got people up and down the country thinking up weird and wonderful ways to squash their cartons. A great achievement given that squashing means people can fit up to three times as many cartons in bins and boxes, helping to reduce the number of trucks on the road.

Thanks to everyone I’ve worked with for a great two and a half years, and all the best for the future. You can still contact the Tetra Pak recycling team at
enquiries.uk@tetrapak.com

Jenny.

First, a big thank you to everybody who sent in their carton squashing videos for our How Do You Squash Yours? competition. The standards were high and we’ve been impressed at the nation’s creativity!

Our panel of judges have spent a long time deliberating over which videos were the most imaginative. Thanks to Richard (our Environment Manager here at Tetra Pak), Lowelle Bryan from WRAP, blogger Rachelle from MyZeroWaste, and Hannah Gainfort who attends St.Josephs Catholic and Anglican High for taking part in the judging process and coming up with our shortlist.

Now, it’s over to you! You now have the chance to select your favourite carton squashing video in our public vote – click here to watch the shortlisted videos and vote for the video you think is most creative!

You have until the end of November to vote. Trust us, they are worth the watch!

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday, for most people this is the day for pancakes; me included. For some of us, this also means giving up something for Lent and pancake day is the day of indulgence before-hand.

It is a time where your supermarket shelves were packed to the brim with pancake ingredients, ready made pancakes, pancake mixes and pancake accompaniments.

Not to be left out of the pancake flurry, I was delighted to get my hands on a limited edition Aunt Bessie’s ready mix pancake batter…. In cartons!

Tasty pancakes, ready mixed, in a pour-able carton, with great environmental credentials. What more could I ask?

My family ensured they had several pancakes each before they would give me the verdict. Thoroughly tried and tested, it passed with flying colours! I may just have to sneak back to the supermarket to get another couple of cartons before it leaves the shelves until next year. Jenny has just told me off for not telling her sooner. She hopes she has not missed the chance to get some near her.

For more information on the Aunt Bessie’s pancake mix in cartons, visit http://www.auntbessies.co.uk/products/products_limited_edition.php

STOP PRESS – Tetra Pak Environment and Sales Teams at the “must attend” environment event of the year!

We are pleased to announce that Tetra Pak will again be at the Eco Pack event at Birmingham NEC on 24th and 25th February. This will be the third year that we have exhibited at the event and we look forward to seeing faces old and new at stand 314.

If you want to learn more about Tetra Pak’s approach to environmentally responsible packaging, sustainability and how we “protect what’s good”, then come along and see us! Our team will be on hand to offer you a no doubt much needed cup of tea or coffee, answer all of your questions, share their expert knowledge and offer their assistance on your packaging needs.

Great news this week – one in five Local Authorities in the UK now collect cartons at kerbside for recycling.

Cambridge City council is the latest to see the huge benefits of including cartons in their kerbside collection. Following the success of their bring bank scheme, Cambridge City are today making the switch to kerbside for carton collection – taking the UK total up to 20% of Local Authority areas that now collect cartons at kerbside.

Although large volumes of cartons have been recycled in Europe for years, just three years ago there was very little provision for collection here in the UK, so this is really great news, and we hope to see more and more councils introducing carton collection at kerbside in the coming year.

Across the UK, carton recycling is offered by 86% of Local Authorities, through bring bank schemes or at kerbside. For more information about carton recycling in your area, visit www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk.

Our ‘How Do You Squash Yours’ competition has almost reached its climax, which is causing much excitement in our office!

You’ve got just one week to go to film what you think is the most creative way to squash your milk and juice cartons to stand a chance of winning an amazing prize. The competition closes at midnight on Sunday (1st November) so get thinking! Have a look here for some inspiration of other entries: girls cartwheeling and cycling over their cartons and even a Power Ranger using his special powers to squash the cartons!

The person creating the winning video – voted for by the public throughout November – will be able to choose between an adventure holiday through Global Vision International (you could be volunteering with turtles in Panama before the year is out!) or an Eco TV, 50 great DVDs and a supply of wine or smoothies in Tetra Pak cartons. Not only that, but you’ll be playing an important part in spreading the message that – if everyone squashed their cartons before recycling them – they could fit at least three times more in banks and boxes. Not only does this save space in kitchens, but also reduces the number of trucks on the road. With the average Brit using 47 cartons a year, it’s vital we all squash before recycling.

So, get your friends and family involved and upload your video to YouTube using our instructions found on our competition home page before midnight on Sunday.

Good luck!