What can Tetra Pak become when its layers stay together?

Although aluminium is often associated with visible industrial applications, part of it exists hidden within everyday single-use packaging such as Tetra Pak cartons. In 2025 alone, around 170 billion of these cartons were produced globally, yet only 27% were recovered and recycled. This is partly due to the limited availability of specialized infrastructure required to separate their different material layers: paperboard, polyethylene (PE), and aluminium.

Layer Lab explores the potential of Tetra Pak as a multilayer material. Despite representing only a small fraction of the package, aluminium plays a crucial role in its performance while also contributing to the complexity of its recycling process. Rather than separating these layers, the project investigates how the material can be reused as a whole by recovering function rather than material: the structural strength provided by the paperboard, the reflective and insulating properties of the aluminium, and the waterproof and heat-sealable qualities of PE.

Through low-tech transformation methods such as cutting, folding, and heat-sealing with an iron, the project demonstrates how the lifespan of Tetra Pak cartons can be extended using simple tools commonly found at home. This Material-Driven Design process resulted in a series of prototypes that highlight different functional dimensions of the material.