C C Lee holds up a piece of shiny corrugated board and gives it a couple of knocks. “It’s very hard, stronger than cement board,” he says, his eyes gleaming proudly. “We’re planning to call it ‘green roof’.”
It certainly is an apt name as the board is fully made of recycled material. Its reflective surface gives a hint of what it once was – beverage cartons. That’s right, those packet drinks which Malaysians guzzle down by the thousands each day can be saved from the dump site and transformed into a new product.
Lee’s company, KPT Packaging, started producing the construction boards in 2011 and it now makes 1,300 pieces each month. It may not be a huge figure but sales are picking up and he is in the midst of doubling his production capacity.
Beverage cartons are made of 75 percent paper fibre, 20 percent polyethylene and 5 percent aluminium foil. A carton typically comprises six layers – a layer each of aluminium and paper, sandwiched in between four layers of polyethylene plastic. This design is what makes them excellent packaging material for food and beverages, but it also poses a recycling challenge – the recycling process has to separate the different materials for reuse.
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