C/PAP 84
The pack is a paper-plastic-aluminium composite, the build of a long-life drinks carton. The decision numbers it 84 and marks composites C plus the main material, so it reads C/PAP 84.
- Material
- Paper and board/plastic/aluminium
- Code
- C/PAP 84
- Family
- Composites
- Defined by
- Commission Decision 97/129/EC
Which bin, usually
Usually not the paper-and-card bin. Drinks cartons are collected in many areas, most often in the mixed packaging bin with plastics and cans or at a carton bank, but not everywhere. Empty them first.
Whether this goes in your recycling depends on your local collection; check your council or municipality's sorting guide.
The material
Paper and fibreboard/plastic/aluminium: board with plastic layers and a thin aluminium foil layer. This is the long-life (aseptic) drinks carton.
Where you see it
Long-life (UHT) milk, juice, plant-milk and soup cartons, cartons of chopped tomatoes and stock, and wine and water in cartons.
What it does not mean
C/PAP 84 does not mean the carton is paper, and it does not promise that a carton plant is near you: the layers are bonded and have to be separated by a specialist.
A composite code says the layers cannot be pulled apart by hand. It does not say that anyone near you separates them, and it does not mean the pack belongs with the material named after C/: C/PAP is not plain paper.
Annex VII also numbers 80 (Paper and fibreboard/miscellaneous metals), 83 (Paper and fibreboard/tinplate), 85 (Paper and fibreboard/plastic/aluminium/tinplate), 90 (Plastic/aluminium), 91 (Plastic/tinplate), 92 (Plastic/miscellaneous metals), 95 (Glass/plastic), 96 (Glass/aluminium), 97 (Glass/tinplate), 98 (Glass/miscellaneous metals).
Other ways it is printed
- C/PAP under an 84 in a triangle of arrows
- C/PAP 84, C/PAP84, CPAP 84 or 84 C/PAP in plain text
- 84 alone in a triangle
Other composites codes
Sources
- Commission Decision 97/129/EC of 28 January 1997 establishing the identification system for packaging materials (OJ L 50, 20.2.1997), as adopted — UK National Archives copy (Annex VII: Paper and fibreboard/plastic/aluminium, 84; Article 2 definition of composite) — checked 2026-09-23
Written in our own words from these public texts and checked on the date shown. ASTM D7611 and ISO 14021 are sold by their publishers; only their public catalogue text is used here.