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!

Willing to recycle YOUR clothes? February 16, 2010

In the current Stylist magazine,  iconic British fashion designer Vivienne Westwood says in an exclusive interview:

“I want people to focus on ‘do it yourself”, and recycling clothes to make them last. Stop buying so many clothes, and when you do, choose well.”

But does Ms Westwood, as someone in the business of fast fashion, practise what she preaches? Apparently so.

She says, “I wear lots of my old things, I like them just as much as the things I design today. Clothes look nicer the older they get. I’m not an acquisitive person; I get one or two things. I don’t need any more because I can’t do better than that.”

Fair enough one might say. But is buying clothing really affecting the environment?

If the figures are to be believed, we buy around 2million tonnes of clothing every year and a staggering 1.2 million of this weight ends up in landfill sites.

The problem lies heavily with highstreet chains which mass produce copies of designer label clothing (such as Ms. Westwood’s) using cheap materials that are non-recyclable.

In line with London Fashion Week, the Governement has launched an initiative to tackle the problem and get fashion followers ‘re-working’ their clothes.

How do you feel about wearing recycled clothes? Or indeed customising your own?