A major change is taking place in one of Australia’s favorite chocolate bars, which could be extended to other popular products.
Nestlé seeks to be greener with its KitKat chocolate bars that will soon be wrapped in 30% recycled plastic.
The announcement comes before World Environment Day on Sunday, with the measure reducing the company’s use of virgin plastic by about 250,000 square meters.
This is enough to cover the surface of the water of more than 200 Olympic swimming pools.
More than 40 million 45k KitKat bars will be wrapped in the greenest wrapper in the new year.
The newly packed four-finger chocolate bars will be available nationwide starting this month.
Nestlé Oceania Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Margaret Stuart said the company had set a goal of reducing its use of virgin plastics by a third by 2025 and that all packaging should be recyclable or reusable.
“We hope this packaging does more than reduce the use of virgin plastic. We hope it will be a reminder of the circular potential of soft plastics and the importance of recycling your packaging,” he said.
“We’re not there yet, but we’d like to see a future where Australia’s soft plastic waste can be turned into soft plastic packaging again.”
She told NCA NewsWire that it was important for large companies like Nestlé to get and buy recycled plastic, as it would encourage more companies to invest in product manufacturing.
Ms Stuart said soft plastics were not widely available worldwide and that the technology to reuse them was still very new.
“We’ve had to search up and down to find what we need to do, but it sends us a message that it’s important to collect and recycle soft plastics … because we know consumers want products of sustainable origin.
“100% recycled content is possible, but we can’t get it right now … We will continue to have more recycled plastic in our entire product range.”
He said the company was constantly looking for its full range of packaging to see how it could improve its suitability.
Nestlé’s general manager of snacks and confectionery, Chris O’Donnell, said changes to the packaging would not affect the product, which would remain crisp and fresh as always.
“While most people are familiar with bottles made from recycled plastic, soft plastic made from recycled content is a more recent breakthrough,” he said.
“We have been looking up and down to find as much of this material as we can from our suppliers.
“Our commitment to improving packaging is just one of our approaches to sustainability and is based on our support for cocoa-producing communities and our commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2025.”
KitKat lovers are reminded that they can recycle their packaging through REDcycle supermarket bins.
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