Nestlé to move Quality Street and KitKat to recyclable paper packaging

Nestlé Confectionery is updating the packaging of its Quality Street and KitKat brands to make them more sustainable.

Quality Street’s twist-wrapped sweets will move to recyclable paper packaging, which the supplier says will remove more than two billion pieces of packaging material from its supply chain.

Nine of the 11 Quality Street sweets will move to paper packaging. Orange Crunch and Green Triangle will remain in foil, as they have traditionally not had cellulose wrappers. The transition to paper packaging is under way, but the supplier says customers will find a mix of old and new wrappers in Quality Street products this Christmas.

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Meanwhile, KitKat will introduce wrappers made with 80% recycled plastic, which can be recycled at more than 5,000 supermarkets across the UK, as well as through household recycling in the Republic of Ireland.

The rollout will begin this month on KitKat’s two-finger products before being extended across the whole range by 2024.

According to the supplier, the move will make KitKat the brand which uses the highest proportion of recycled food-grade plastic of any major UK and Ireland confectionery brand. The packs will feature the Recycle At Store On-Pack Recycling Label (OPRL), a labelling scheme established by the British Retail Consortium to help consumers correctly reuse and recycle their packaging.

Nestlé aims to reduce its use of virgin plastic by one third and make all its packaging recyclable or reusable within the next three years.

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