Greener Packaging with ‘Purple Goes Green’
‘Purple Goes Green’ is Cadbury’s commitment to shrinking its global environmental footprint, and all the company’s employees have joined forces to make it happen.
In terms of packaging, Cadbury have made the following commitments for 2010:
• 100% recoverable or biodegradable packaging
• A 10% reduction in packaging, with a 25% reduction for seasonal and gifting ranges
• 60% biodegradable packaging including paper, board and biodegradable plastics
• 100% of secondary packaging to be recyclable where practical
• All paperboard packaging to be supplied by certificated sustainable forest sources by 2010
• A ceiling for product/pack volume ratio will also be set.
Our achievements so far
The great news is that though Cadbury are just a third of the way through the Purple Goes Green initiative, 50% of their objectives have already been met. Here’s what’s been achieved so far:
• Cadbury Treasure Eggs were a new product for Easter 2008 which have no cardboard box, they’re just wrapped in foil. This reduces plastic by 75% and uses 65% less cardboard than a standard egg.
• Cadbury have also reduced the amount of plastic casing in small and medium sized Easter eggs, thereby saving 202 tonnes of plastic (which is the equivalent of 4.8m plastic bottles).
• Finally the amount of cardboard used in transporting Easter eggs from warehouses into stores has been reduced saving 117 tonnes of cardboard or 2000 trees.
• Cadbury and other manufacturers in the Easter Egg market came to a joint agreement to produce a 25% smaller carton for medium-sized eggs. With Cadbury alone producing 40 million of these eggs a year, that’s a lot of cardboard!
• All carton board – the sort of card that makes Easter Egg cartons and Milk Tray boxes – is made from wood accredited by the Forest Stewardship Council. This certifies that the wood comes from forests managed to the highest environmental standards.
• Flow wrap has replaced the old paper band and foil packaging for bars like Cadbury Dairy Milk.
And there will be much more to follow in 2009 and beyond. For more information see www.purplegoesgreen.com