Update on the Cadbury Easter egg packaging saga April 5, 2010

Cadbury's Easter bestseller- The medium Creme Egg Easter Egg

So, I’ve just submitted an article for Birmingham Recycled concerned with Cadbury’s Easter egg packaging.

It’s Easter weekend and Cadbury have been promoting their eco-friendly chocolate ‘Treasure Eggs‘ which won a ‘Green Award‘ back in 2008 for ‘Best Packaging‘.

But have Cadbury done anything else in working towards an eco-friendly Easter since then?

In my previous post about Cadbury’s Easter Egg packaging, I outlined some information I received from the company about the Purple Goes Green initiative and what this means for Cadbury’s Easter products- mainly hailing the magnificant wonder product that is the ‘Treasure Egg’.

I found that it was unclear as to whether plastic used in their Easter products was recycled- even that used to house the Treasure Eggs.

I managed to track down a Cadbury employee who worked in the Easter egg plant, who was able to tell me that,

‘The plant runs all year round. As far as I know everything is recycled- cardboard, plastic and the chocolate!”The plant has now shut down for three months, as approximately £5 million is being spent on new machinery. The packing of the eggs will now mostly be done by robot, and automated machinery.’

She also told me that,

‘When up and running, next year’s eggs will contain no plastic at all inside the box. I know Cadbury do their best to keep packaging to a minimum’

Good news.

This follows Cadbury gaining a special mention in Lib Dem MP Jo Swinson‘s fourth-annual Easter Egg packaging report.

Cadbury were recognised for their efforts in reducing Easter egg packaging and their future plans, along with other confectionary companies such as Nestlé and Sainsbury’s own-branded eggs.

However, News Editor of Packaging News, Josh Brooks provides some interesting counter points to mull over in his article looking at Easter egg packaging and Jo Swinson’s report.

One such view, is his point that Easter eggs are gifts- and are packaged as such.

Jo Swinson criticises chocolate brands Lindt and Guylian as the worst packaging offenders. Take a look at these pictures:

On their websites, both Lindt and Guylian describe these particular Easter products as ‘gifts’. Guylian even describes the ‘gift wrapping’ (essentially packaging) as ‘sumptuous’ and ‘luxury’.

So, if we consider Easter Eggs as gifts, should we allow for gift-style packaging?

I mean, if you received your birthday presents unwrapped I’m sure you wouldn’t be a happy ‘Easter’ (sorry couldn’t resist) bunny!

Extra info from Cadbury March 25, 2010

After a small nugget of information was gained from Cadbury about their green initiatives following my last post; Cadbury have finally returned my emails for more information.

At first, all the company could tell me, regarding the Kraft takeover and ‘green’ goals previously set by Cadbury, was:

‘Kraft has committed to maintaining our environmental pledges so there is no difference to the timetable or targets.’

I have now been sent a generic fact-sheet about Cadbury’s Easter products and their place within the ‘Purple Goes Green’ campaign.

This is the information I was given:

‘Purple Goes Green sets out Cadbury’s strategy for shrinking our environmental footprint. By cutting our energy and water use, as well as reducing excess packaging, we aim to reduce our net carbon emissions by 50% by 2020.’
‘Overall Cadbury have committed to a 25% reduction in weight in seasonal and gift packaging and have announced that 60% of our packaging is now biodegradable. We have also reduced our giant shell egg cartons by an average of 35% in 2010.’

‘Cadbury continues to invest in our ‘eco egg’ range, which includes Cadbury Treasure Eggs and Cadbury Egg Heads. These yummy Easter eggs are simply wrapped in foil, reducing plastic waster by 75% and cardboard waste by 65%. Cadbury’s Easter packaging reductions across the range to date have enabled us to remove over 2290 Cadbury lorry loads from the road.’

All very well one might say; however take a look at this picture of the miraculous ‘Treasure Eggs’

Cadbury Treasure Eggs use a questionably neccessary plastic tray for display on supermarket shelves

Yes, by the eggs not being packaged in their own individual boxes, Cadbury are certainly saving cardboard. I wonder however, why a plastic tray is used to house the eggs? Surely a paper/cardboard one would do the same job but would be far easier to recycle.

What are YOUR thoughts on this?