Words by Smiley Team
Quality Street chocolates are going green, with recyclable wrappers for your favourite Christmas treat.
The range of sweets, owned by Nestlé, attempted to phase in green packaging back in 2008 with a compostable cellulose layer, but found it was still tossed in the bin in most households.
Now, with the climate crisis on everyone’s minds, they are trying again – this time with recyclable paper wrappers.
It marks a switch away from shiny plastic wrappers, in the 86 years since Harold Mackintosh launched the chocolates in 1936. The hope is that it'll keep 2bn wrappers a year out of landfill.
Nine out of the 11 sweets will make the move to recyclable paper wrappers, rather than their foil and plastic ones that are used currently. The other two, orange crunch and green triangle, already use recyclable foil so they do not need to make the switch.
"With nine different sweets to consider, the transition has been a huge undertaking,” said Louise Barrett, Head of the Nestlé Confectionery Product Technology Centre in York. “Each of our existing machines need to be adapted to run paper and then rigorously tested by our packaging experts to ensure we're still delivering the same quality consumers expect when they open a box of Quality Street.
"We hope the fact that our famous sweets are now recyclable will make finding your own Quality Street favorites even more popular this year."
These brand new paper wrappers will be covered in a specially designed vegetable-based coating, designed to keep the sweets as fresh as ever, without preventing the recycling process.
The switch will take several months to fully implement, meaning that when you go to stock up your Christmas stash this year you may find a mix of packaging.
DONATE: Give to WRAP, to help reduce waste associated with food products.
GET INVOLVED: Get stuck in with Keep Britain Tidy, to help reduce waste, increase recycling and keep rubbish off our streets.
