MEPCO and Tetra Pak Collaborate in Saudi Arabia’s Green Paper Revolution

Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil producer is going green. At least in its first ecologically sustainable paper manufacturing venture. A carton paper manufacturer is making good its concerted efforts in environmental sustainability in the desert kingdom to recycle paper and raise consumer awareness about eco issues.

In a joint effort, the country’s paper manufacturer, Middle East Paper Company (MEPCO) and Tetra Pak Arabia will, exchange expertise and experiences in the recycling field and MEPCO’s role will be to collect, sort and do the actual recycling work. Beverage carton recycling will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfill sites.

The partnership will address the issue of recycling thousands of cartons that get discarded by households and other establishments across Saudi Arabia on a daily basis, the first of its kind in the Middle East region.

The collaborators hope that apart from making a mark on the environment, they will be opening the recycled products, largely post consumer food and beverage cartons, to a wider international market, and follows successful trials conducted to demonstrate the recycling ability of Tetra Pak cartons by MEPCO.

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“We strive to be an eco-friendly company committed to the principles of conservation and sustainability. We look forward to recycling the cartons and raising consumer awareness about environmental issues,” said MEPCO chief executive, Abdullah Al-Moammar.

“Although it’s a great challenge and costs too much to separate the plastic from the paper during the recycling process, we (are in it) to help the protect the environment. We didn’t look at it as beneficial agreement.”

Jeddah based MEPCO is Saudi Arabia’s and Middle East’s largest paper and board manufacturer using recycled raw materials. MEPCO is also a leading supplier of liners and fluting, offering the full range, both in virgin and recycled fibre. The company is a major supplier to the corrugated industry for high-end packaging purposes. MEPCO produces nearly 110,000 tons of paper every year and, also collects and recycles more than 150,000 tons of waste paper.

But this arrangement may prove to be a social challenge for the paper manufacturer in a country that lacks social awareness of the importance of the recycling process and they will need people to be educated on how to isolate the different types of wastes before throwing them into trash cans.

Tetra Pak Arabia has recently upped its game in recycling and environmental sustainability. Just in March this year, the company appointed Mohammed Angawi as its environment manager with responsibilities that include driving Tetra Pak Arabia’s post-consumer beverage carton recycling initiative across Saudi Arabia and the Gulf in partnership with local paper mills, waste management companies, municipalities, NGOs and government authorities.

The core product of Tetra Pak’s packaging is wood fibre that comes from sustainable managed forests, a renewable resource. The Jeddah factory of Tetra Pak Arabia is ISO 14001 certified and the entire factory waste is recycled regularly. Globally, the company recycles 21 billion cartons annually.

With these combined conservationist attributes from the two collaborators, they are hoping to create an oasis for environmental sustainability and set the pace for a greener Middle East.

Image Credit: André Gustavo at Flickr under Creative Commons license

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