The Mars Wrigley chocolate factory in Ballarat in Victoria's Central Highlands will transition to recyclable, paper-based packaging in a world-first for the company.
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Consumers will find the new packaged Mars, Snickers and Milky Way chocolate bars on shelves from April 2023.
The shift to wrap the chocolate bars in recyclable paper is an Australian-first, thanks to the Ballarat factory's research and development hub.
The project, worth more than $2.5 million, was developed at the Mitchell Park site over the past two years.
Mars Wrigley research and development director Chris Hutton said the hub had put in a big team effort to bring the project to life and make it a reality.
"We have collaborated with our peers overseas and they're going to be taking a lot of the learnings that we've had over the last two years," Mr Hutton said.
"As you can imagine it's been such a long process, we've learnt a lot along the way, and this is going to benefit the rest of the Mars Wrigley world."
Once the Australian-made chocolate bar portfolio has transitioned to paper-based packaging, Mars Wrigley will remove more than 360 tonnes of plastic from its supply chain, enough to stretch from Melbourne to London and back.
Mr Hutton said all Mars Wrigley packaging would be recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025.
"I think recycling infrastructure is a challenge across the world and I think there is a lot happening in Australia at the moment across industry, government and other bodies in order to find ways to improve it," he said.
"There is action that we can take now and this paper wrapped bars opportunity is a really good example of where we are making changes that are going to immediately impact our consumers and the environment."
Mars Wrigley is collaborating with stakeholders to improve the way products are packaged in Australia. It is part of the Australian Food and Grocery Council's national plastic recycling scheme.
"We've just started a trial on kerbside recycling of soft plastics, as an example, and that's collaborating across a number of industry stakeholders and other stakeholders in order to improve the recycling infrastructure in Australia," Mr Hutton said.
"That's one example as an industry as a whole where we are collaborating to improve the packaging sustainability situation in Australia."
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The chocolate manufacturer is sourcing the recyclable paper-based packaging from overseas, "due to the nature of the availability of the specific material that we need", Mr Hutton said.
"We work with a range of local suppliers across our ingredients and packaging and one day hope to source this from Australia," he said.
"The paper material that we use in the packaging is all sustainably sourced and Forest Stewardship Council certified, which I think is really important."
The packaging is more expensive than the current plastic wrappers but this will not be passed onto consumers, with some of the project's $2.5 million being invested in the increased cost.
The new paper-based packaging can be recycled via traditional kerbside recycling.
Mr Hutton said he believed consumers' response to the new-look packaging would be positive.
"It makes life really simple for our consumers. They know that if they buy a Mars Bar, as an example, they know if they put the wrapper in the recycling bin that it will get recycled," he said.
"Consumers also expect us as an organisation, and we also believe that we have a really large responsibility in this space, to take action to make changes that will have a positive impact on the environment and ultimately serve our sustainability goals."
Mars Wrigley's new paper-based packaging will be available on 47 gram and 64 gram Mars Bars, 44 gram and 64 gram Snickers bars and 45 gram Milky Way bars.
