More environmentally-friendly Easter egg packaging? We think we’ve cracked it!
We’ve removed 98% of the plastic packaging on all our Extra Special Easter eggs. Fiona Dobson from our Packaging team explains more…
You might notice something different about our Extra Special Easter eggs this year ... we’ve redesigned the packaging to remove as much of the plastic as possible.
The new packaging means a whopping 98% reduction per pack in the amount of plastic used, saving a total of 16 tonnes of plastic waste and is part of our commitment to reduce the total amount of plastic used in our own brand packaging by 15% by February 2021.
We’re constantly working with our suppliers, like Jack Craig from Walkers Chocolates who's pictured above with our category senior director Shelley Solomon, to come up with innovative solutions that are better for the environment and we’re committed to making all of our packaging recyclable by 2025.
To reduce the amount of plastic without compromising the quality of the chocolate egg inside we've also tweaked the shape of the egg – changing it from a wider, round shape to a thinner, oval one.
A completely round egg needs to be held on three sides to ensure it faces forwards – which in the past has meant a lot of plastic packaging. By slightly flattening the shape of the egg we can stop it spinning around in the packaging and use recyclable cardboard inserts on top and bottom to hold the egg securely in place.
Despite the change in shape, the egg remains the same weight as before – there’s no less chocolate.
The biggest challenge was making sure customers can still get good visibility of the product because the packaging is no longer clear – as well as making sure the eggs are sufficiently protected.
We had to retain a little plastic window so customers can see the egg, but it’s designed to be easy to separate from the cardboard and is recyclable.
Our new Extra Special Easter Egg range is made with 100% sustainable, UTZ certified Belgian chocolate.
As always our Extra Special Easter eggs taste delicious and make beautiful gifts. This year the range is all about the bold, classic flavours we know our customers love that really deliver on flavour.
My personal favourite is the ‘Raspberry One’, which is Belgian white chocolate with real raspberry pieces. But to be honest it’s hard to choose … they’re all amazing!
We’ve also developed a new Caramel 'Egg-Splosion' Egg which is scattered with “egg-stroadinary” caramel pieces and loaded with “cracking” crispy chocolate wafers and golden crispies. Yummy!
Look out for the new-look range in store and online from February 10th.