Daily Express

Unwrapped: Secret of padding that fills chocolate box

- By James Murray

IN the post-Christmas lunch haze, few people will be able to resist the temptation of Ferrero Rocher chocolates passed around while ice cubes tumble into glasses of Baileys. Across the land, many will eye the distinctiv­e box, loath to take on board yet more calories, but say ‘oh, go on’ before devouring the guilty pleasure.

Now, however, they will be astonished to learn that almost half the weight of the chocolate box is made up of packaging.

Consumer watchdog Which? found that Ferrero Collection was the worst offender in a survey of top-selling Christmas chocolate products.

Some 42 per cent of the total weight was packaging and to make matters worse only 11 per cent of that material was easily recyclable, said Which?

In its defence, the chocolatie­r claimed its packaging was designed to maintain freshness and quality and prevent damage during transport.

It added: “The box used for Ferrero Collection can be recycled only when the local infrastruc­ture allows us to do but in the UK this is still not available.”

Waitrose Christmas Chocolate Favourites was second in the roll call of shame, with packaging taking up 30.3 per cent per cent of the weight, while Thornton’s Continenta­l came third with 29.4 per cent.

However, the recyclable components were 96 per cent and 87 per cent respective­ly.

Marks & Spencer’s The Big Selection had the least packaging at just 8.5 per cent, but you can only recycle 71 per cent of it.

Confusion reigns over what different symbols mean to consumers and how they would actually go about recycling.

Almost half (48 per cent) thought a green dot on packaging is a sign it can be recycled. It actually means that the manufactur­er pays into a recycling scheme, and the packaging may not be suitable for recycling.

But there is good news for those who buy tubs of Mars Celebratio­ns, Nestle Quality Street and Sainsbury’s Chocolate Treats.

All are made of PET 1, the same plastic that water and soft drinks bottles are made of which is easy to recycle.

Even the foil used to wrap the goodies is recyclable but you need to make a bundle at least 1½ inches wide for it to be identified at recycling centres.

At last there’s something to do with those wrappers which appear miraculous­ly around glasses at about 5pm on Christmas Day.

Nikki Stopford, director of research and publishing at Which?, said: “For many of us the indulgent look of these chocolate boxes is synonymous with the Christmas season.

“We are more aware than ever of the impact we are having on the world around us – so we want our research to help people to make the right choices for them and to understand how to dispose of packaging in the most eco-friendly manner.”

All the manufactur­ers said packaging was needed to keep their festive offerings fresh and to avoid damage during transport. Cadbury’s said robust packaging increased the shelf life of products, reducing food waste “which is 10 times more detrimenta­l to the environmen­t than plastic”.

Its parent company Mondelez has promised that all paper-based packaging will be “sustainabl­y” sourced by 2020 with plans to eliminate 60,000 tons of packaging material worldwide.

Mars Wrigley Confection­ery UK said it is working towards 100 per cent recyclable packaging by 2025 and Nestle said: “A lot of work has gone into making our Quality Street packaging as sustainabl­e as possible.

“Our tins, plastic tubs, cardboard cartons and foil can all be recycled while the cellophane wrappers are compostabl­e.”

Waitrose said the black plastic insert tray in its chocolate has recently been replaced by Rpet, which is more widely recyclable.

The promises to do more will be welcomed by consumers – and provide some comfort as million of boxes are emptied over the Christmas break.

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