Step 1
The material
What a carton is made of, and why it’s worth recycling.
Environmental education
Collection only works if cartons are sorted right. We run hands-on workshops for our partner cafés, using real cartons from our routes.
A carton thrown out with ordinary paper can’t be recycled, but most people are never told that.
Of cartons recycled in Korea
14%
Cartons are made from high-quality pulp, but in 2024 Korea recycled only 10,612 of the 75,847 tonnes sold. Source: 한국순환자원유통지원센터 (Korea Resource Circulation Distribution Support Center).
What a workshop covers
Whether a carton gets recycled depends on the person who throws it away. That’s why we teach as well as collect.
Step 2
How to sort
Empty and rinse it, take off the cap and straw, then flatten it. Everyone practises with real cartons.
Step 3
Where it goes
Where a carton goes after the café: the sorting centre, the paper mill, and what comes back.
Step 4
Who it reaches
The local households who receive the recycled tissue.
Why cartons get lost
Mixed with paper. Cartons thrown out with regular paper can’t be recycled, and few people are told how to sort them.
Nowhere to go. There’s usually no separate bin for cartons, and public sorting centres don’t process them separately, so most get thrown away.
A stalled market. Imported pulp is cheap and there’s little demand for recycled products, so even collected cartons often go unused.