In a world-first for the brand, Nestle Australia is to package KitKat bars in 30 per cent recycled soft plastic paper. The move is aligned with its goal of cutting its virgin plastic use by a third by 2025.
Beginning next year, more than 40 million 45g Kitkat bars will be packed in 30 per cent soft plastic wrapper, reducing the volume of virgin plastic used by an estimated 250,000 sqm – enough to cover more than 200 50m swimming pools.
“We’ve implemented several changes to reduce our use of virgin plastic, but this switch, the first of its kind, will be a huge change,” said Chris O’Donnell, GM at Nestle Oceania.
The wrapper is Nestle’s first soft plastic food wrapper globally to include recycled plastic content.
According to O’Donnell, while this is a big step in the right direction, it marks just the beginning of Nestle’s journey of using less packaging and better systems.
“Soft plastic with recycled content suitable for food packaging isn’t widely available, and the company hopes to increase the amount it uses in packaging as more becomes available,” he added.
“In the meantime, we’ve committed to investing US$2.08 billion globally to stimulate the market and lead the shift from virgin plastics to food-grade recycled plastics.”
The 30 per cent food-grade recycled plastic wrapper is supplied by Finnish consumer packaging company Huhtamaki. The recycled content has been allocated using the mass balance approach and certified by ISCC.
In addition, customers can also recycle their empty wrappers through RedCycle Australia, a voluntary nationwide program to help keep plastics and packaging out of landfills.
