Finnish dairy products group Valio has introduced fully renewable Tetra Rex Bio-based packs for Valio Luomu organic milk and sour milk.
Tetra Rex Bio-based is manufactured entirely from plant-based materials supplied by Braskem. The bio-based plastics firm is supplying the plastic derived from sugar cane.
The cartons are made of plastics is made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and low-density polyethylene (LDPE) made from ethanol produced from sugar cane.
The paperboard is derived from wood fiber.
Valio is expanding the use of fully renewable packs after the concept was tested for three months from January.
According to the group, it received positive feedback from Finnish consumers as more than 80% of respondents in a survey endorsed the fully-renewable packages.
Valio packaging technology manager Tanja Virtanen-Leppä said: "We received extremely positive feedback from consumers during the test phase, so it was natural to move towards a more permanent use of fully renewable milk cartons.
"We have chosen to use the 100% renewable packages for our organic milk in the first instance because buyers of organic products in particular appreciate ecological packages."
The cartons are recycled using standard procedures, and the renewable material is not biodegradable, Valio said.