Eggs-cessive amount of Easter choccy packaging
Apr 06, 2018Jonny BairstowSustainability & Environment 0
Image: shutterupeire / Shutterstock
Plastic and cardboard packaging make up as much as a third of the total weight of the top 10 best-selling branded Easter eggs on sale in supermarkets.
That’s according to new research by consumer group Which?, which compared the proportion of chocolate to cardboard, plastic and foil in each of the eggs and found on average this ratio was 3:1.
Which? said the most packaging-intensive egg it surveyed was Thorntons’ Classic Large Egg, with the cardboard box and plastic making up more than a third of the product’s overall weight.
On the other end of the rankings was Cadbury’s Twirl Large Easter Egg, which the consumer group found had the least packaging, coming in at 18.8 % of the total weight.
The study also suggested almost all of the packaging from the eggs studied was recyclable, with chocolate bar wrappers and plastic viewing windows the only parts to be sent to landfill.
Nikki Stopford, Director of Research at Which?, said: “The UK produces around 11.5 million tonnes of packaging waste every year and much of this comes from food and drink packaging.
“It’s great to see that some manufacturers have taken on board concerns about excessive packaging and that chocolate lovers can enjoy their eggs without too much compromise.”
A Thorntons spokesperson said: “As a company, we are strongly committed to environmental responsibility and we are always looking for innovative ways to reduce the environmental impact of our packaging.”