From 2025, Cadbury’s sharing bars, including Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury Caramilk, Cadbury Fruit & Nut and more, will be wrapped in packaging with 80% certified recycled material, allocated through mass balance approach and offering the same great taste.
The packaging initiative will be applied to an incredible ~300 million bars each year*, the highest percentage of recycled plastic currently used by the Cadbury brand globally. In fact, if the bars were placed end-to-end, they would cover more than forty times the length of the UK or would sell-out Wembley Stadium 3,000 times.
Cadbury will now allocate the equivalent of 600 tonnes of post-consumer, recycled plastic each year*, the same weight as around 40 standard double decker buses.
The new 80% certified recycled packaging has been sourced using advanced recycling technology. This approach can be used to turn your used plastic packaging back into food-grade, flexible plastic packaging.
The initiative uses a mass balance approach, meaning that Cadbury has sourced and allocated an amount of recycled material that meets ISCC’s (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) requirements, to produce the new Cadbury tablets packaging wrapped in 80% recycled plastic. When the mass balance principle is used, the physical amount of recycled plastic in the packaging can vary. Cadbury attributes an equivalent amount of 80% recycled plastic, but the physical amount of recycled plastic can be more or less, per tablet.
The wrapping transition has already begun, with bars including Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel 120g, Cadbury Fruit and Nut 180g and Cadbury Dairy Milk 360g, all available on-shelf in the new certified recycled packaging. The ambition is for all Cadbury sharing bars made and sold in the UK&I to be wrapped in the new recycled material by the end of 2025.
Joanna Dias, Mondelez UK Sustainability Lead, says: “We’re so proud to be taking this big next step with Cadbury. We know that sustainability is important to consumers, so by moving to 80% certified recycled plastic – and wrapping more than ~300 million bars this year – we’re not only helping to give flexible plastic a second life, but also helping Cadbury fans enjoy their favourite snacks, knowing they’re doing something positive for the planet.”
This packaging change marks another important step towards Cadbury’s long-term ambition of more sustainable snacking, and forms part of Mondelez International’s global “Pack Light and Right” strategy.
This focuses on reducing the use of virgin plastic in packaging, increases post-consumer recycled plastic in Cadbury packing. By investing in innovative materials, Cadbury is supporting the circular economy, whilst still offering the same delicious Cadbury taste.
