Supermarket is Best Place for Carton Recycling

Isle of Man Creamery has said that Tesco is a better spot for its carton recycling collections than the Eastern District Amenity Site.

The board of the amenity site has recently said it was disappointed the Creamery doesn’t have a collection point at the tip on Middle River Industrial Estate.

At its September meeting, the board, made up of members from local authorities, was told that Creamery position remains unchanged and that ‘they do not wish to place a bin for cartons at the CA site’. The minutes also states that the Creamery recommended the committee makes its own arrangements if it wants a milk carton collection point.

It added: ‘Members expressed their disappointment at the Creameries position, particularly as they collect from other civic amenity sites and opined that the costs for recycling the tetrapaks should not fall to the Joint Committee. Question was raised as to how the cartons collected are recycled and whether there was any carbon saving. Members requested that the contractor seek quotations for the site taking tetrapak to Tel’s for onward processing.’

However, speaking to Gef, the Creamery said that since it launched the recyclable cartons in 2019, it had made its own arrangements to ensure that islanders could recycle them.

A spokeswoman said: ‘At our own cost we partnered with Tel’s to place recycling points around the Island at convenient locations for our customers to be able to drop their used milk cartons that would then be collected and sent to our recycling partners, Ace UK in Halifax. 

‘The Eastern point was placed in Tesco car Park as it is a site that is open 24hrs, is free to access and central in Douglas. At present we are not looking to place another site in the East as each site costs us a considerable amount to run and maintain.’

The Creamery also confirmed that Onchan Commissioners has enquired about additional recycling points and was placing and maintaining the bins, as well as dropping the cartons to Tel’s for processing.

The spokesman added: ‘We are happy to talk to any other local authorities that would like to undertake something similar in their area.’