Recycling aseptic cartons.

• Position: FROM READERS - Letter to the editor

Thank you for the good advice about disaster preparedness [Green Guidance] in the Sept/Oct '06 issue. And I particularly appreciate the mention of avoiding bisphenol-A in most food cans. Sadly, toxic concerns usually disappear in emergencies.

I'm curious though, about the advice to use foods in aseptic cartons, and the mention that those cartons are recyclable. Anything is recycle-able, if the effort is made. But in my understanding these packages are made of such mixed up materials, including plastics which add toxic concerns, that recycling is difficult. Where I live, recycling is marginal anyway, but I certainly am unaware of any efforts to recycle these mixed material cartons.

I would like further information, please, and I am sure other people could use it, too.

ELLEN BARFIELD

Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Green Guidance columnist Paul McRandle responds: Aseptic packages are made of layers of cardboard (70 percent of the product), polyethylene plastic (24 percent), and aluminum (6 percent). Milk cartons, produced in much greater amounts, are also made of layers of paper and plastic and both cartons and aseptic packages can only be recycled by "hydropulping," which separates the layers to recover the paper content. While independent recycling statistics are difficult to come by...