Packaging alone accounts for up to a quarter, on average, of the total weight of the most popular Easter eggs on sale on the High Street, new research by a consumer group has revealed.
The worst offender in the top 10 best-selling branded eggs analysed by Which? was Thorntons’ Classic Large Egg, where the cardboard box and plastic make up more than a third (36.4%) of the product’s weight.
Which? compared the eggs by weighing their packaging as well as chocolate contents to find out the proportion of cardboard, plastic and foil in each – as well as assessing their recyclability.
The second-worst was Lindt Lindor Milk Chocolate Egg that has a packaging weight percentage of 28.1%, while Mars’s Milk Chocolate Easter Egg and Chocolate Bar and Cadbury’s Creme Giant Egg both weighed in at just above the 25% average at 25.5% and 25.1% respectively.
For many years chocolate eggs made headlines for the volume of packaging which ended up in landfill at Easter, with manufacturers and retailers criticised for not doing more to reduce it and make it more recyclable.
But Which? said industry improvements in both areas had now paid off, with almost all of the packaging from the eggs in this study recyclable. The only elements that could not be recycled were chocolate bar wrappers and plastic windows.
“The UK produces around 11.5m tonnes of packaging waste every year, and much of this comes from food and drink packaging,” said Nikki Stopford, director of research at Which? “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.”
The Which? survey found that Cadbury’s Twirl Large Easter Egg had the least packaging of the 10, accounting for just 18.8 % of the total weight. It is packed almost entirely in cardboard meaning that most of it can be recycled. Only the two chocolate bar wrappers in the package, together weighing less than a gram, can’t go in the recycling bin.
“From plastic to cardboard, the bulk can be collected by recycling workers as part of the kerbside collection service,” the survey said. The plastic that comes with Easter eggs is usually PET 1, the same type of plastic that bottles are made of and easily recycled by 99% of local authorities. Foil is also recyclable; Recycle Now, the national recycling campaign for England, recommends cleaning it and scrunching it into a ball.
A Thorntons spokesperson said: “At Thorntons, the packaging we use is carefully designed to maintain the freshness and quality that is the hallmark of our products. All of the packaging used in the Thorntons Classic Collection Easter egg is recyclable, with the exception of the small plastic window film on the carton which contains the Classic collection chocolates. In addition to being recyclable, the fitment that protects the egg is itself made from 50% recycled plastic. Full details of the recyclability are clearly stated on pack. As a company, we are strongly committed to environmental responsibility and we are always looking for innovative ways to reduce the environmental impact of our packaging.”
