90% recycled plastic in KitKat packaging

In a step towards sustainability, KitKat Australia has increased its use of recycled plastic in the wrappers of select products to 90% — cutting 1,200,000 m² of virgin plastic each year. The 90% recycled plastic is allocated using the ISCC mass balance approach.

Andrew Lawrey, Nestlé General Manager Confectionery, said, “It’s critical that our packaging keeps KitKat safe and fresh and delivers that delicious snap consumers love. While recycled plastic suitable for soft plastic food wrappers continues to be scarce, we will keep working closely with our suppliers to transition as quickly as possible.”

The wrappers will be used on the classic KitKat and KitKat Gold 4-finger bars, KitKat Chunky Aero Mint bar and classic KitKat block.

The update builds on KitKat’s move last year to wrap its food in soft plastic made with 30% recycled plastic using a mass balance approach, which has seen more than 40 million KitKat 4-finger bars wrapped with 30% recycled plastic since.

Margaret Stuart, Nestlé Oceania Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, said the company is on a mission to cut its virgin plastics use by a third by 2025.

“We hope this wrapper does more than just reduce virgin plastic use. We hope it’s a reminder of the circular potential for soft plastics. We all know the disappointment of not being able to recycle our soft plastics right now, but we’ve designed our wrappers so that where collection is available, they can be recycled,” Stuart said.

Nestlé is continuing to work with industry and the value chain to see a future where used plastic can be collected and recycled in Australia.

Nestlé is planning to introduce food-grade soft plastic wrappers made with recycled plastic to further product ranges as global availability increases.