Nestle said this week that its Quality Street sweets will stop being wrapped in dual foil and cellulose, and instead be housed in recyclable paper packaging.
The food and beverage company said the move would remove almost 2.5 billion individual pieces of packaging material from its supply chain globally.
Developed by Nestlé’s Confectionery Research & Development Centre in York, and the Switzerland-based Nestlé Institute of Packaging Sciences, the new recyclable paper packaging reportedly required “extensive development in the engineering of new materials, coating technologies, printing techniques and the adaptation of existing equipment”.
Two flavours of Quality Street – Orange Crunch and the Green Triangle – will remain in their existing foil wrappers with Nestle saying these can already be recycled. The move to new recyclable paper packaging for the nine remaining twist-wrapped sweets will take a few months to fully implement, it added.
Consumers buying the product over the next few months can expect to find both existing and new wrappers in their Quality Street cartons, pouches, tubs, and tins.
Louise Barrett, head of the Nestlé Confectionery Product Technology Centre, said the packaging transition has been “a huge undertaking”.
“Each of our existing machines need to be adapted to run paper and then rigorously tested by our packaging experts to ensure we’re still delivering the same quality consumers expect when they open a box of Quality Street,” she added.
Since it was first launched in 1936, Quality Street has been produced in Halifax, West Yorkshire. The brand follows Smarties, which introduced recyclable paper packaging for all its confectionery products globally in 2021.
Nestlé has committed to reach 100% recyclable packaging by 2025.
Last year, Nestlé’s UK & Ireland arm invested £1.65 million in Scotland-based firm, Yes Recycling, which aims to process hard-to-recycle plastics from its site in Fife.
The plastic recycling plant will turn flexible plastics not typically collected by local authorities at curbside into building materials. Items such as food packaging and sweets wrappers can be turned into plywood-alternatives for use in construction, retail spaces, and the agricultural industry.
[Image credit: Nestlé]
