Australian made Cadbury Dairy Milk Blocks will be among the first food products in the world to be available and wrapped in recycled soft plastic packaging, the confectionary brand has announced.
Announcing the news today, Cadbury’s owner US firm Mondelez International said it had sourced the equivalent of 30 per cent of the plastic needed to wrap the brand’s famous blocks from recycled sources.
“Not only is this a world first for Cadbury, but Cadbury in Australia will be among the first anywhere in the world to buy recycled content soft plastic packaging,” Mondelez International president for Australia, New Zealand and Japan, Darren O’Brien, said in a statement.
“While we’ve accessed the very latest technology from overseas to source this recycled material, we know that demand for circular packaging will continue to grow and we’d love to see recycling technology built in Australia to meet local demand.”
The volume of recycled plastic being used for the new packaging is enough for 50 million family blocks – which, laid end-to-end – would equate to distance from the Cadbury factory in Hobart, Tasmania to Mumbai in India.
While soft plastic packaging has long been considered a single use material, accessing the latest recycling technology means fans of the chocolate (aka, all of us) can look forward to playing a role in the circular economy.
“Today’s announcement is another step towards establishing a truly circular economy, one where all plastics are fully recycled which is good news for our environment and our economy, as well as for all Australians who want to eat Cadbury chocolate sustainably,” Assistant minister for waste reduction and environmental management, Trevor Evans welcomed the move.
“This announcement gives the sector further confidence that their investments in domestic advanced recycling facilities can solve sustainability challenges and grow jobs in an exciting emerging industry.”
The recycled content plastic material will be used for the Cadbury Dairy Milk family blocks range first, made at the brand’s Hobart factory.
Mondelez International said it was “just the first step” to use recycled soft plastics as a circular material, with the company determined to increase the amount of recycled material in its packaging.
The first blocks made with the recycled soft plastic in their packaging will hit supermarket shelves in September 2022.
