Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Tetra Pak and several other companies and government agencies have already expressed their interest, and wish to support the development of the technology and gain early access to its industrial applications, according to the company.

"We are delighted to support a very promising technology that, if successful on a large scale, will substantially increase recycling in the UK" said Richard Hands, environment manager for Tetra Pak UK & Ireland.

The company was also supported by GEIF Ventures Early Growth Fund, Cambridge Angels and Cambridge Capital Group.

The technique, brain-child of Dr Carlos Ludlow-Palafox at the University of Cambridge, reclaims potentially lucrative high-grade aluminium from laminate packaging. 900,00 tonnes of multi-layer drinks cartons are produced in Western Europe alone, and while 30 per cent of the paper is reclaimed, none of the aluminium content is currently recycled. The Enval process is engineered to function in paper recycling plants to extract 100 per cent of the aluminium content.