Imagine fitting every discarded milk carton with a “mini navigator” to track where it actually ends up—a question that lingers in the mind of anyone who has ever sorted waste.

Tetra Pak continues to monitor the implementation of milk-carton recycling solutions.
In 2023, a survey of 30 residential communities in Shanghai revealed that about 65% of milk cartons were thrown into general waste, with only 35% truly entering the recycling system.

To address doubts about whether waste sorting really works, we launched a pilot project in Shanghai and Hangzhou, equipping discarded milk cartons with GPS trackers to follow their journey in real time—from neighborhood blue recycling bins, to baling stations, then transfer centers, and finally into the regeneration process.

This “seeing is believing” tech experiment exposed bottlenecks at every stage—such as limited space at baling sites and signal interference—while providing reliable data to motivate community cleaners and help optimize recycling operations.

One thing is certain: your effort at the sorting bin is never in vain.

Come explore the journey with us! 👇