Nestlé goes green this Christmas (From York Press)

Nestlé goes green this Christmas

9:13am Thursday 27th November 2008

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CONFECTIONERY giant Nestlé is preparing for a greener Christmas by slashing the size of the packaging on its selection boxes.

But the York-based company stressed today that customers will still get the same amount of their favourite chocolates and sweets on Christmas Day. It said the move was part of an ongoing drive to cut back on waste.

Seasonal brand manager Andy McQuade said: “While the number and size of chocolate bars in selection boxes remains the same as in 2007, the packaging is 40 per cent smaller and 25 per cent lighter than last year.

“In total, Nestlé will use 150 tonnes less packaging this Christmas compared to last year.”

He said that all of Nestlé Confectionery’s selection boxes – which contain major brands such as Smarties, Aero,Fruit Pastilles, Milky Bar and KitKat – were also now made from 75 per cent recycled board, with the plastic trays made from recycled bottles.

“Additionally, the selection boxes will include on-pack messages which encourage families to recycle the box after they’ve eaten the chocolate.”

A spokeswoman said Nestlé Confectionery had also made changes to its Christmas favourites Quality Street and After Eights to make their packaging more sustainable.

“Quality Street’s coloured Cellophane films have been replaced with compostable wrappers, which are originally derived from wood and decompose within a few weeks within a home compost bin,” she said. “After Eights’ individual sleeve wrappers are also now compostable.”

She said Nestlé was to launch an advertising campaign featuring a ‘shrunken’ Santa to inform consumers about the packaging reductions.

She said between 1991 and 2007, Nestlé reduced the amount of packaging used on a global basis by 326,300 tonnes. “More than half of Nestlé’s packaging in the UK is recyclable. More than 30,000 tonnes of waste packaging was recovered in 2007.”

Fridey Cordingley, head of the recycling campaigning organisation WRAP, said statistics had shown that UK households produced an additional five sacks of rubbish over the festive period.

“The work Nestlé is doing to reduce Christmas packaging is a positive step forward in helping to reduce the amount of packaging sent to landfill,” she said.

Celebrity mum Nell McAndrew is backing Nestlé’s festive campaign.

She said: “As I know all too well, Christmas is a busy time for mums, and with so much to prepare, it’s great that Nestlé is making it easier for us to do our bit for the environment over the festive season.”

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