Third of Easter eggs’ weight is packaging
EASTER egg makers have been shamed over packaging as research reveals up to a third of their weight is cardboard and plastic.
A study by consumer watchdog Which? compared the packaging to chocolate ratio of the top 10 bestselling branded Easter eggs, and found Thorntons Classic Large Egg was the worst.
In total the egg weighs 418g (14.7oz) but its packaging makes up more than 152g (5.3oz) – or 36 per cent – of this weight. The second worst egg for packaging was Lindt’s Lindor Milk Chocolate Egg, which had a packaging weight percentage of 28.1 per cent.
The egg with the least packaging of the 10 investigated was the Cadbury Twirl Large Easter Egg. Its packaging made up just 18.8 per cent of the total weight. It is also packaged almost entirely in cardboard, meaning that most of it can be recycled.
Only the two chocolate bar wrappers, which weigh less than a gram together, cannot be recycled.
To find out how the chocolate and packaging compared, Which? weighed all of the Easter eggs in their packaging, and then again with packaging removed.
It then weighed the packaging on its own. The plastic that comes with Easter eggs is usually PET 1, the same type of plastic that bottles are made of. This can easily be recycled by 99 per cent of local authorities.
Foil is also recyclable. Recycle Now, the national recycling campaign for England, recommends cleaning it and scrunching it up into a ball.
Nikki Stopford, the director of research at Which?, said: “The UK produces around 11.5 million tons of packaging waste every year, and much of this comes from food and drink packaging.
“Our investigation helps shoppers wanting to cut down on their waste make better decisions this Easter. It’s great to see that some manufacturers have taken on board concerns about excessive packaging and that chocolate lovers can enjoy their eggs without too much compromise.”