Tetra Pak solution helps cut water usage and carbon emissions

Tetra Pak’s new UHT 2.0 portfolio with OneStep technology and Tetra Pak E3/Speed Hyper reduce water and steam consumption, creating less waste water and therefore also lowering the cost of its removal for Dairy manufacturers. Adding a Water Filtering Station unit to Tetra Pak E3/Speed Hyper helps recover 5,500 litres of water per filling machine running hour (up to 95%), while contributing to lower water consumption. With water scarcity on the rise, waste water is increasingly becoming a pressing industry concern. Up to a fifth of Tetra Pak’s customers are based in high or extremely high-risk water areas and the company is prioritising action to address this.

The combination of UHT 2.0 with OneStep technology and Tetra Pak E3/Speed Hyper scores highly across industry benchmarks for sustainability, with a 0.8 GHG Index score, a 0.3 Water Index score and a Product Losses Index score of 0.71. When compared to a conventional line solution, this optimal integrated solution reduces GHG emissions by 20%, water usage by 70% and product losses by 30%.

Alejandro Cabal, vice-president, packaging solutions, Tetra Pak, said: “As part of Tetra Pak’s wider ambition to reach net zero emissions across the value chain by 2050, we want to be part of the solution to limit climate change for the global dairy sector. To achieve this, accelerating the development of our low carbon circular packaging and equipment portfolio and working to help customers realise their emission reduction targets is a priority. A significant share of emissions comes from the operation of equipment at customers' sites. Addressing this through innovation and collaboration is vital.”

Frederik Wellendorph, vice-president liquid food, Tetra Pak, said: “We continuously innovate in both food processing and packaging to offer solutions which enable reduction in water consumption, carbon footprint and product losses. In addition to this, we offer environmental benchmarking and improvement services, helping customers achieve their own sustainability targets. Through this holistic approach to sustainability, we aim to help our customers benefit both from low-carbon equipment and packaging, a reduction in operational costs as well as an enhanced brand image – that is increasingly proving attractive to sustainability-savvy consumers.”

Upgrades to Tetra Pak’s UHT 2.0 portfolio will enhance automation possibilities and performance, with the offering representing the strongest5 in the industry. The new UHT 2.0 portfolio combined with OneStep technology cuts processing steps out of the production line without affecting end-product quality.

Tetra Pak E3/Speed Hyper represents the future of portion package production. It is the world’s fastest aseptic carton filling machine, producing up to 40,000 portion packs per hour, using eBeam sterilisation technology to complete the task more efficiently and more rapidly than has previously been possible. This reduces the environmental impact and makes water recycling easier. It couples low-cost high-speed production with significant environmental advantages. While its increased capacity can reduce manufacturers’ operational costs by up to 10%, it also represents a low carbon alternative to aseptic PET equipment – since electricity consumption and carbon footprint are both five times lower than for aseptic PET lines.

The announcement follows Tetra Pak’s 2020 pledge to not only reach net zero emissions in its own operations by 2030, but to also realise a net zero emissions ambition across the value chain by 2050. Tetra Pak has planned a step-change in investment levels in sustainable innovation, committing at least 100 million euros annually over the next five-10 years. This will help the company realise its goal of offering processing and packaging solutions with a minimal carbon footprint.