Our operations

Carton packaging material

Producing Tetra Pak cartons requires four raw materials: paperboard, aluminium (for our aseptic packages), plastics and ink. The process of combining these materials is referred to as converting.

Tetra Pak’s converting factories use a special laminating technology to combine layers of board, aluminium and plastic to form the structure of the carton. Each material adds a different property to the carton: paperboard for strength and stiffness, aluminium as a barrier against oxygen, odours, and light, and plastic as a moisture barrier.

Tetra Pak also prints customers’ packaging designs on the cartons, either onto the paperboard before it is laminated, or onto the plastic outer layer.

Closures, straws, strips and film

Tetra Pak produces closures, straws, sealing strips and film, which are used as package components. They are all manufactured by processing plastic material.

Processing equipment and packaging machines

Tetra Pak develops and provides integrated processing, packaging, and distribution equipment for food. These include separators, homogenisers and aseptic processing equipment, as well as packaging machines, conveyors and film wrappers.

At Tetra Pak sites, processing and packaging machines are manufactured or assembled. These plants have a relatively low direct environmental impact. However, more important is the performance of Tetra Pak machines, such as energy and water efficiency, during operation at the customer sites.

Support services

Under support services we include research and development centres which develop new packaging and processing systems. Some large sites, hosting a variety of activities, are also included in this category. 

Market companies

Tetra Pak’s market companies are a critical link in our business, connecting us with our customers around the world.

Largely office-based, these operations are quite different in environmental terms from our manufacturing sites. However, we believe that we must carefully manage all aspects of our activities and that includes offices.