From 31% to 41.6%: Five Years of Beverage Paper-Based Composite Packaging — What Has Been Achieved?

A finished milk carton is washed, flattened, dropped into the recycling bin, and then goes to a sorting center and a reprocessing plant, where it becomes pulp, plastic and aluminum powder, or hot-pressed board and extruded board, and ultimately notebooks, desks and chairs, trash bins and signboards. This chain has been made to work over five years. According to a report in the 15th issue of the weekly Green Development, in 2020 the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued the Implementation Plan for the Extended Producer Responsibility System for Beverage Paper-Based Composite Packaging, China's first EPR implementation plan for a specific product category. Five years later, the Special Committee released the Beverage Paper-Based Composite Packaging Extended Producer Responsibility Performance Report 2025: the resource recovery rate rose from 31.0% in 2020 to 41.6% in 2025, exceeding the 40% target. 01 Three numbers, the results 41.6 The resource recovery rate in '25, more than 10 percentage points higher than in 2020; it reached 40.8% in 2024, completing the target one year ahead of schedule. 407,000 tonnes CO₂e The annual carbon emission reduction of the enterprises in the cooperative network for recycling and reuse, a reduction rate of 84.8%. 300+ publicity and recycling special actions, including environmental protection classes, public welfare projects, community recycling and campus recycling. 02 One model, why has it taken shape? The EPR model for beverage paper-based composite packaging gives full play to the main responsibility of manufacturing enterprises, links the resource recycling and reuse industry chain, and effectively and efficiently implements the EPR system through market-based operation, maximizing efficiency and benefits. It is a successful case of China's institutional innovation of “government guidance and industry self-discipline”, with distinctive Chinese characteristics and international leadership, and is ready for regular operation and replication in other categories. Around the four extended responsibilities of eco-design, information disclosure, standardized recycling and reuse, and publication of performance reports, the industry has gradually built a green circular standards system covering the entire product life cycle; completed the first large-scale carbon emission reduction accounting; the Shenzhen campus milk carton recycling project completed the country's first carbon inclusion transaction in the field of beverage paper-based composite packaging; and third-party performance evaluation of EPR implementation has also been carried out. 03 From the design source, building “recyclability” into packaging

The Special Committee led the development and release of the group standard Design Guide for Recyclability of Food and Beverage Paper-Based Composite Packaging, which, based on international and domestic industry practice and the basic requirements of product eco-design, further established the principle of “compatibility grading” for materials, providing a unified technical specification for improving packaging recyclability from the design source. As a packaging manufacturer and a member unit of the Special Committee, SIG Combibloc continues to participate around the four extended responsibilities: in eco-design, focusing on recyclability and foil-free low-carbon development; in information disclosure, promoting transparency in packaging structure and resource recovery methods; in public advocacy, working with brand companies and recycling companies to enable consumers to “understand and be willing to sort”. 04 Next stop: from the first pilot to a replicable industry demonstration

The pilot has completed the institutional construction “from zero to one”, and the industry is now entering the stage of regular implementation and quality-and-efficiency improvement “from one to excellence”. The 15th Five-Year Plan for Circular Economy Development proposes supporting the industry in carrying out self-disciplined recycling of beverage paper-based composite packaging and further implementing the extended producer responsibility system. In the next five years, the Special Committee will continue to raise the resource recovery rate, explore mechanisms for realizing the carbon emission reduction value of resource recycling and reuse, and promote high-value utilization of packaging materials. The industry also needs to keep “three accounts” well: the economic account, the institutional account and the data account, so that the recycling of low-value recyclables can “grow in volume, be sustainable and be replicable”. From one milk carton to one model; from the first pilot to more categories of low-value recyclables. SIG Combibloc will continue to walk together with the Special Committee and industry chain partners, so that every paper-based composite package has a better chance of completing its circular journey.