UK – American multinational confectionery and snack food company Mondelēz International has announced that it will use recyclable packaging for its Dairylea and Philadelphia brands in the UK and Ireland from August 2021.  

According to the company, the move away from non-recyclable material is part of the Pack Light and Pack Right strategy, which supports its vision of achieving 100% recyclable packaging by 2025.  

Dairylea Lunchables will now use recycled plastic (rPET) in its packaging – “the result of a design optimisation project reducing the virgin plastic needed by 75% or approximately 276 tons per annum,” a company statement said.  

Meanwhile, Mondelēz’s Philadelphia brand will become the “first major cheese brand” to use chemical recycling, set to be in place by the end of 2022. 

These actions are part of the company’s wider goal to reduce the use of virgin plastic by 10,000 tons in five years.  

The transition to recyclable packaging is timely as it comes less than a year ahead of a UK Government’s new Plastic Packaging Tax reliance on virgin plastics, which accounted for 44 percent of the UK’s plastic use in 2017, according to Raconteur. 

With recycled plastics, Mondelez will be able to avoid additional costs which as the new law will cost businesses £200 ($273) per tonne of packaging that does not contain at least 30 percent of recycled plastics. 

Apart from reducing compliance costs for Mondelēz, transitioning to recyclable material will also make the brands more attractive to environmentally conscious consumers. 

A recent study by Trivium Packaging revealed that two-thirds (67%) of consumers consider it important that the products they buy are in recyclable packaging with 54% others taking sustainable packaging into consideration when selecting a product.  

“Snacking Made Right means making our products with packaging people can recycle, it means making decisions for the long term that enable a circular economy,” Louise Stigant, UK managing director at Mondelēz International, said. 

“I am enormously proud to share this latest move on our journey towards our 2025 goals to better protect people and the planet.” 

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