Nestlé brand moves to paper-based packaging for sweets

Quality Street is introducing recyclable FSC-certified paper packaging for its twist-wrapped sweets worldwide.

The move from dual foil and cellulose to recyclable paper wrappers will see the brand remove almost 2.5 billion individual pieces of packaging material from its supply chain globally.

The papers have been developed by packaging experts at Nestlé’s Confectionery Research and Development Centre and Institute of Packaging Sciences, and required extensive development in the engineering of new materials, coating technologies, printing techniques and the adaptation of existing equipment.

The flavours orange crunch and green triangle will remain in their existing foil wrappers as they can already be recycled. The move for the nine remaining twist-wrapped sweets will take a few months to implement, so consumers will see a mix of new and old packaging until the end of 2022.

Louise Barrett, Head of the Nestlé Confectionery Product Technology Centre in York, said: “With nine different sweets to consider, the transition has been a huge undertaking. Each of our existing machines need to be adapted to run paper and then be rigorously tested by our packaging experts to ensure we’re still delivering the same quality consumers expect when they open a box of Quality Street.”

The brand is the company’s second to make the move to paper. It contributes to the company commitment to reach 100% recyclable packaging by 2025.

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