Cadbury Australia will be using recycled plastic from Amcor to wrap its core chocolate range, accelerating its goal to reduce its virgin plastic use.
With this latest investment, the chocolatier aims to use around 50 per cent recycled plastic for its wrappers across its chocolate blocks, bars, and pieces range produced in Australia.
The move comes shortly after its parent company, Mondelez International, partnered with Amcor to invest in Licella to fund the construction of one of the country’s first advanced soft plastic recycling facilities.
The new facility – managed by Advanced Recycling Victoria (ARV) – is scheduled for completion next year and will initially process around 20,000 tonnes of end-of-life plastic per annum, with plans to scale up to an estimated 120,000 tonnes per annum.
According to Cadbury, the volume of recycled plastic sourced from Amcor will be enough for around 500 million family blocks of Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate.
Mike Cash, president of Amcor Flexibles Asia Pacific, said the company partnered with Mondelez International when it made the first step to transition to recycled content for the Cadbury Dairy Milk family blocks.
“Now we’re helping them elevate this ambition by sourcing around 1000 tonnes of recycled plastic to help reduce virgin material across more of the Cadbury chocolate portfolio,” he continued.
“Being able to source this significant volume of recycled material for Mondelez International allows them to differentiate and grow and demonstrates the collective commitment of its leadership.”
In 2022, Cadbury announced that it had sourced around 30 per cent of the plastic needed to wrap its 160g to 185g Cadbury Dairy Milk family blocks produced in Australia from recycled materials.
“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,” added Darren O’Brien, president of Mondelez International Australia.
“By creating confidence in the market for recycled material, we’re helping to build a future for plastic recycling in this country.”
The roll-out of recycled material is expected to begin in the first quarter of this year, starting with blocks and expanding into bar lines such as Cherry Ripe, Crunchie, and Twirl, as well as pieces of wrappers for Roses and Favourites.
