Big change coming to one of Australia’s favourite chocolate bars

A big change is coming to one of Australia’s favourite chocolate bars, which could be extended to other popular products.

Nestlé is looking at going greener with its KitKat chocolate bars soon to be wrapped using 30 per cent recycled plastic.

The announcement comes ahead of World Environment Day on Sunday, with the move cutting back the company's virgin plastic use by around 250,000 square metres.

That’s enough to cover the water surface of more than 200 Olympic swimming pools.

More than 40 million 45g KitKat bars will be encased by the greener wrapping in the new year.

The newly packaged four finger chocolate bars will be available nationwide from this month.

Nestlé Kit Kat 45g bars will be packaged in 30 per cent recycled plastic. Picture: Supplied

Nestlé Oceania Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Margaret Stuart said the company set a goal to cut its virgin plastics use by a third by 2025 and that all packaging be recyclable or reusable.

“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 and the importance of recycling your packaging,” she said.

“We’re not there yet, but we’d love to see a future where Australia’s soft plastic waste can be turned back into soft plastic food packaging.”

The newly packaged four finger chocolate bars will be available nationwide from June 2022. Picture: Supplied

She told NCA NewsWire it was important that large companies like Nestlé sourced and bought recycled plastic as it would encourage more businesses to invest in making the product.

Ms Stuart said soft plastics were not widely available worldwide and the technology to reuse it was still very new.

“We had to search high and low to find what we need to do this but it send a message that it is important to collect and recycle soft plastics … because we know consumers want products that are sustainably sourced.

“100 per cent recycled content is possible but we can’t get hold of it at this point … We’re going to continue towards having more recycled plastic across our product range.”

She said the company continually looked across its entire packaging range to see how its suitability could improve.

Nestlé‘s Margaret Stuart said the company set a goal to cut its virgin plastics use by a third by 2025. Picture: Supplied

Nestlé General Manager of Snacks and Confectionery, Chris O’Donnell, said the changes to the wrapping wouldn‘t affect the product which would remain crisp and fresh as always.

“While most people are familiar with bottles made with recycled plastic, soft plastic made with recycled content is a newer breakthrough,” he said.

“We’ve been searching high and low to find as much of this material as we can from our suppliers.

“Our commitment to packaging improvements is just one of our sustainability focuses and builds on our support of cocoa farming communities and commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2025.”

KitKat lover are reminded they can recycle their wrappers through REDcycle supermarket bins.

For more information, visit the website.