Amcor, a global leader in developing and producing responsible packaging solutions, signed a deal with Cadbury to source approximately 1,000 tonnes of post-consumer recycled plastic to wrap its core Cadbury chocolate range, accelerating Cadbury’s ambitions to reduce its virgin plastic needs.
In 2022, Cadbury announced it had sourced approximately 30% (on a mass balance basis) of the plastic needed to wrap its 160 gm to 185 gm Cadbury Dairy Milk family blocks produced in Australia from recycled materials. With its latest purchase, Cadbury aims to use approximately 50% (on a mass balance basis) recycled plastic for its wrappers across its chocolate blocks, bars and pieces range produced in Australia. This will be equivalent to halving its virgin plastic needs to wrap those products.
The rollout of recycled material is expected to begin in Q1 of 2024, starting with blocks and expanding into bar lines such as Cherry Ripe, Crunchie and Twirl as well as pieces wraps for Roses and Favourites.
This announcement comes shortly after Cadbury’s custodian, Mondelez International, shared its longer-term vision to recycle plastic waste on home soil, partnering with Amcor to invest in Licella to fund the construction of one of the first soft plastic advanced recycling facilities in Australia. The new facility in Melbourne, managed by Advanced Recycling Victoria (ARV), is scheduled for completion in 2025 and will initially process around 20,000 tons per annum of end-of-life plastic, with plans to scale up to approximately 120,000 tonnes per annum.
Mike Cash, president of Amcor Flexibles Asia Pacific, said, “We partnered with Mondelez when they made the first step to move to recycled content for their Cadbury Dairy Milk family blocks packaging, now we’re helping them elevate this ambition by sourcing approximately 1,000 tonnes of recycled plastic to help reduce virgin material across more of the Cadbury chocolate portfolio. Being able to source this significant volume of recycled material for Mondelez gives them the opportunity to differentiate and grow, and demonstrates the collective commitment of Mondelez’s leadership.”
Darren O’Brien, president – Mondelez International Australia, New Zealand and Japan, said, “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. By creating confidence in the market for recycled material, we’re helping to build a future for plastic recycling in this country.”
