Out of the tin into the box
In a bid to reduce packaging weight targets, Cadbury is trialling a cardboard box for its traditional Roses chocolates tin seasonal and gift packaging.
The boxes which are being trialled at Tesco this Christmas, saves 200 tonnes of steel and is 45% lighter. Cadbury hope that offering sustainable packaging will boost sales.
Cadbury's Head of Marketing for Giving and Seasonal, Jo Grice, said that the box had "an environmental twist on a festive favourite", adding, "Reducing the packaging across many of our popular ranges such as selection packs and tree decorations is our way of giving the planet a gift this Christmas and will help us meet our environmental commitments."
Director of the Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association, Nick Mullen, said that while brands were free to change their packaging as they felt the need, the environmental aspect of the decision was a concern, saying, "Metal is known to be one of the easiest and most commonly recycled packaging materials and any reference to material being wasted is wholly unfounded, the drive to use materials efficiently and make waste obsolete is led by metal: it's the only material which does not degrade when recycled and reprocessed so can be recycled again and again with no loss of quality."
Nick said that tinned chocolates was a "real winner as a Christmas gift option" for many years and their later use as cake and biscuit containers and countless other uses was integral to the product.
The Purple Goes Green strategy introduced by Cadbury includes a pledge to reduce seasonal and gift product packaging by 25% by 2010. Their selection boxes have been reduced by an average of 32% across the range (approximately 400 tonnes of cardboard), and the they are to introduce a 28% reduction in its packaging for tree decorations.
The Roses box, is also being used for Heroes chocolates, and Cadbury say that it will be used in other stores if feedback from consumers is good. During trials, consumers found the box was more practical and easier to wrap.
