Cadbury to halve virgin plastic in chocolate wrappers

Cadbury has signed a deal with Amcor to source approximately 1000 tonnes of post-consumer recycled plastic to wrap its core chocolate range.

In 2020, Cadbury announced it had sourced 30% of the plastic needed to wrap its 160 to 185 g Cadbury Dairy Milk family blocks produced in Australia from recycled materials. With its latest purchase, Cadbury aims to use 50% recycled plastic for its wrappers across its chocolate blocks, bars and pieces range produced in Australia. This will be equivalent to halving its virgin plastic needs to wrap those products.

The rollout of recycled material is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2024, starting with blocks and expanding into bar lines such as Cherry Ripe, Crunchie and Twirl, as well as Roses and Favourites.

The announcement comes shortly after Mondelēz International shared its longer-term vision to recycle plastic waste on home soil, partnering with Amcor to invest in Licella to fund the construction of a soft plastic advanced recycling facility. This facility, managed by Advanced Recycling Victoria (ARV), is scheduled for completion in 2025 and will process around 20,000 tonnes per annum of end-of-life plastic, with plans to scale up to 120,000 tonnes per annum.

Mondelēz International Australia, New Zealand and Japan President Darren O’Brien said, “Reducing virgin plastic use and supporting a circular packaging economy is a focus for our business and this latest deal to purchase recycled plastic is another important step in our journey. By creating confidence in the market for recycled material, we’re helping to build a future for plastic recycling in this country.”

Mike Cash, Amcor Flexibles Asia Pacific President, said, “We partnered with Mondelēz International when they made the first step to move to recycled content for their Cadbury Dairy Milk family blocks packaging; now we’re helping them elevate this ambition by sourcing 1000 tonnes of recycled plastic to help reduce virgin material across more of the Cadbury chocolate portfolio.

“Being able to source this significant volume of recycled material for Mondelēz International gives them the opportunity to differentiate and grow and demonstrates the collective commitment of Mondelēz International’s leadership.”