GREEN OUT OF THE BOX

       BMA joins with Chao Koh producer to turn used UHT cartons into school desks and chairs.
       By Walailak Keeratipipatpong
       The growing consumption of drinks and liquid food has left behind a huge volume of UHT cartons, a nightmare for recyclers.According to the food industry's estimates on the consumption of readyto-drink and ready-to-cook products,about 3.8 billion cartons are discarded each year, representing 38,000 tonnes of waste.
       Although paper makes up a major part of each carton, it is not fully degradable because 20% of it is made of plastic and 5% aluminium foil.
       But the waste has value if it is recycled into chipboard to make furniture and student desks and chairs.
       Each year, the used cartons can be processed into more than 1.5 million sets of student desks and chairs, since each set calls for an average of 2,500 cartons.
       Turning used UHT cartons into chipboard is quite common in developed countries but in Thailand, the first concrete project was launched only 10 years ago by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration and Tetra Pak (Thailand)Co, a leader of food-processing and packaging solutions.
       But many changes in BMA governors over the past years disrupted the policy.The shortfall of discarded boxes due to inefficient garbage collection also impeded the project. Tetra Pak, the world's biggest producer of the cartons,has therefore pursued the initiative on its own.
       M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra, the Bangkok governor, however, used the occasion of the World Environmental Day on June 5 to launch the used-carton recycling project to produce desks and chairs for 435 schools under the supervision of BMA.
       The project, in co-operation with Ampol Food Processing Co (APF), the processor of Chao Koh coconut milk, aims to encourage BMA students to return used UHT cartons of any kind of products to the company to be made into desks and chairs for their own schools.
       The co-operation branched out from APF's existing project.
       Kritsada Sopa, marketing manager of APF, said that the company had already invested 10 million baht to equip a recycling machine at its manufacturing plant in Nakhon Pathom for the purpose.
       The investment is part of APF's Magic Box programme, which aims to collect 10 million used UHT cartons this year to produce 7,600 sets of desks and chairs for schools in rural areas.
       "We expect to get another 10 million used packages from the BMA schools which should enable us to produce as many as 11,600 sets of chairs and desks,"Mr Kritsada said.
       Based on the company's study, the two projects could help reduce as many as 198 tonnes of garbage and more than 178,000 kilogrammes of carbon dioxide.
       Mr Kitsada also said the company would also discuss with the postal service provider Thailand Post Co a plan to allow people to drop used packages at postal outlets. It plans to run the project continuously to make chipboard office furniture as well.