Please accept our warm welcome to the first issue of “Environment Focus.” This is an electronic newsletter that will be produced three times per year and sent by e-mail exclusively to Tetra Pak customers. We want you to know what we’re up to and where we stand on environmental issues so that you can remain confident in having made the best environmental choice in packaging. We are proud of our commitment to the planet, proud of our customers, and proud to share timely information with you that we hope will be useful and interesting. In addition, we hope you will share this information freely within your organization, with your customers and other stakeholders, and that you won’t hesitate to forward your views about our publication and about the environment in general. Please send your comments to the editor at jaan.koel@tetrapak.com.

Recycling

There are a number of end markets to which post consumer Tetra Pak cartons are sold. In all cases, the end product is household tissue. In Nova Scotia and New Brunswick they are handled by Great Northern Recycling, a broker in Halifax that is shipping them to tissue mills offshore. Newfoundland and PEI is using an additional broker called Scotia Recycling, also based in Halifax, which is marketing this material to mills overseas for the same purpose.

Municipalities in Quebec and Ontario, meanwhile, are collecting Tetra Pak cartons together with milk cartons and selling them to Paper Tigers in Illinois, which is a broker representing Great Lakes Tissue Mill in northern Michigan. They are also selling them to Continental Paper Grading, a broker in Mississauga, which sends the material to local tissue mills in North America and to others overseas.

In western Canada, Tetra Pak cartons are brokered by Turtle Island Recycling to tissue mills in the far east. One of the western provinces, British Columbia is selling its used Tetra Pak cartons to Paper Tigers for recycling at the Great Lakes Tissue Mill.

Ontario and Quebec Municipalities

Tetra Pak has been actively campaigning to have its cartons included in more and more blue box programs in Ontario and Quebec. Household access in Ontario and Quebec is 78% and 60% respectively.

Tetra Pak has supported these municipalities and regions with funds to be used to communicate the addition of its containers to these programs to residents in each respective jurisdiction (funds used toward creating brochures, billboards, newspaper advertisements, radio announcements, etc.).

For a complete list of Ontario and Quebec regions and municipalities that accept Tetra Pak cartons for recycling, please visit www.tetrapak.ca.

The last 18 months has been a particularly successful period in regard to new program start-ups. They include:

Ontario:

• Waterloo Region (150,000 households)
• North Bay (32,000 households)
• Orillia (30,000 households)

Quebec:

• City of Laval (110,000 households)
• Sherbrooke Region (130,000 households)
• Quebec City (200,000 households)
• Tricentris Region (200,000 households)
• Levis: (52,000 households)

Did You Know?

Tetra Top cartons (like those used by Farmers Dairy for milk products, and McCain Foods for “Cool Quenchers” fruit beverages) are recyclable too? They can be included in all Blue Box programs that collect Tetra Pak and milk cartons.

Get Your Creative Juices Going!

To promote awareness of the environment among school kids in general, and the recyclability of Tetra Pak cartons in particular, Tetra Pak has been running an environmental art contest targeted at students nationwide. It’s called Get Your Creative Juices Going! To enter, students are required to build a sculpture bounded only by their imagination containing a minimum 500 Tetra Pak cartons and a variety of other recyclable materials. The contest closes in mid-April with prizes awarded in May. Prizes, worth in the thousands of dollars, include computers, software, clothing, art supplies, and other items. The contest also includes a specially developed curriculum for teachers on the subject of waste management and recycling. For more information please visit www.tetrapakcreativechallenge.com.

School Awareness Program

In addition to running the “Get Your Creative Juices Going” contest in schools, Tetra Pak will plan and conduct a specific campaign in BC, Quebec, and Ontario that aims to promote the use of Tetra Pak packages in schools. This program will centre on communicating Tetra Pak packaging is recyclable and responsible from a societal and environmental point of view.

Tetra Pak Climate Program

In September, Tetra Pak became a sponsor of Tree Canada Foundation. Tetra Pak donated enough money to enable Tree Canada to plant 1750 trees, which, by the time they are mature, will have offset 50 per cent of the carbon emissions created by Tetra Pak employee air travel during 2004.

Household Access

Currently, 78% of Canadian households have access to recycling Tetra Pak containers, and the national recycling rate for Tetra Pak cartons is approximately 28%. They are being collected for recycling through a combination of deposit/return programs in six provinces (BC, AB, SK, NB, NS, and NFLD), and voluntary curbside programs in four provinces (PQ, ON, MT, and PEI).

WWF Sweden and Tetra Pak sign agreement

Tetra Pak and WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Sweden have signed a three year agreement to cooperate globally in forestry and climate change programs. The agreement proposes actions to demonstrate responsible purchasing of forest-based products and to reduce Tetra Pak's CO2 emissions over the next five years by 10 per cent. "We are delighted that a company that has a powerful track record on environment and social issues should be working with us to further its performance and serve as a model for other companies," said Lars Kristoferson, general secretary of WWF Sweden. "We believe this cooperation will prove that well-managed renewables -- be they energy or materials -- represent the future for our planet."