Restless to find a better way

Since we kicked off in 2019, we have learned A LOT on our sustainable packaging journey. Changing single-use packaging systems is not straightforward and not something any single manufacturer is going to be able to do alone. So, in line with our commitment to Good Honest Chocolate-making, we’re providing a summary of our packaging journey so far (bumps and all) in the hope that our learnings help everyone move forward.

It all began in 2019…

Our plan for achieving sustainable packaging started with a review of our non-negotiables - identify the things we can’t compromise on: 

• Food safety and quality: Can the packaging protect the chocolate to our shelf-life expiry dates and still meet our quality standard? 

• Sustainable integrity: Can it be sustainable produced, and responsibly disposed of? 

• Maintaining production performance: Will it run through our wrapping machines? What will we need to change?

Then we considered three end-of-life outcomes for packaging we thought were preferrable to landfill: 

• Home compostable: Packaging that can go in your home composting bin along with your food waste. 

• Commercially compostable: Packaging that needs to go to a special facility that provides the right conditions for it to break down. 

• Recyclable: Packaging that can be recycled into new products.

However, sadly, due to a lack of wider support for scaling-up the compostable packaging infrastructure system, we have not been able to grow this strand of work any further, and instead, had to change tack to look at alternative materials.

Where we're at with soft plastics recycling:

While we haven’t found a replacement for our soft plastic packaging yet, we’re committed to making sure there is a responsible end-of-life plan for it. That’s why we’re a member of the New Zealand Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme, helping to support their collection service and the processing of soft plastics. We’ve also set up a monthly soft plastics collection system for our factory soft plastic waste. Although the soft plastic we use on many of our products has always been recyclable, there hasn’t always been the infrastructure in New Zealand for it to be collected and processed. However, the team at the Soft Plastic Recycling Scheme have made great progress in this space to:

• make soft plastic collection bins more widely accessible, and
• support businesses processing the collected soft plastic to turn it into useable finished products like fence posts and garden edging 

Currently, we use soft plastic recyclable materials for the wrap on our Slabs, Multipack Slabs, Chunks, Sharebags, Mini Slabs, and Artisan Squares unit wrap. Chocolate Lovers can help ensure the sustainability of this packaging by disposing of it correctly.

Unfortunately in Australia, the leading soft plastics recycling system ran into major problems in November 2022 and now many of our Australian Chocolate Lovers will not be able to recycle our soft plastic packaging due to a lack of end-of-life solutions for the recovered soft plastics materials. At the moment, the advice is to check locally for collection schemes or put the packaging in landfill.

What we've learned about wrapping chocolate in paper (so far):

Our gifting assortments pouches are currently made from a type of plastic that isn’t accepted by the soft plastics recycling scheme in New Zealand, and therefore they must be disposed of in landfill. We’ve been looking for alternative materials for some time, and in 2020, we thought we’d solved it, launching our new Cocoa Lovers Assortment in an innovative new paper pouch. We sent it out to supermarkets across New Zealand just in time for Christmas.

Sadly though, when our new paper pouches sat on shelf next to the plastic pouches, they looked a little crumpled. Over time, the damage from being picked up and looked at got worse, with little rips and creases forming in the paper. Eventually, we had to revert back to a plastic pouch, and due to a lack of sales, the Cocoa Lovers Assortment was then deleted entirely.  Not a win for paper… but we didn’t give up there.

Could paper be an option as a block foil replacement?

Our chocolate block foil currently has to be disposed of in landfill because it’s made of paper stuck to an aluminium foil layer, so although both materials alone would be recyclable, recyclers can’t separate the two. We’ve been testing lots of other options to try and replace it and in 2023, we got very close to launching a promising paper‐based alternative. It was an innovative new material, with a cleverly engineered barrier coating to maintain food safety and quality. We’d ran a successful factory trial to check the paper wrapped on our lines in the factory, and then we took some over to Melbourne to conduct a specially designed repulp ability test with the fibres recycling experts at Monash University.

Our paper passed the test to prove it could be repulped and therefore recycled. The team at Monash tested using the APCO fibre recycling test method, and we thought this would pass muster with the same recycling standard advisor in New Zealand.

However, we were told New Zealand would not accept this testing, as the fibres recycling standard in New Zealand was being updated and, in the meantime, our paper would continue to be classified as non-recyclable until there is certainty about the new standard. There is still minimal information available to New Zealand businesses on where the paper recycling system is headed and what kinds of food-safe coatings and inks we could be innovating with that would be accepted via kerbside paper recycling, which has been making things a bit tricky!

In the meantime, we’ve also been conducting shelf-life testing on our trial paper. A further challenge we’ve encountered cocoa butter has a tendency to come through the edges and corners of the paper where it presses tightly against our bars, making the outside of the paper grease-spotted. To overcome this, we are continuing to work in partnership with our suppliers to find an alternative barrier coating, which will meet the evolving recycling standards set by New Zealand and Australia.

Could 'single layer' aluminium foil be a solution?

We’ve run some promising factory trials of aluminium foil and partnered with another local business that supplies the foil and works with us on recycling solutions. We’re proud to support them as they lobby for change to enable aluminium foil to be recycled more widely across New Zealand using Whittaker’s as a test case. 

Where to from here?

As at 2024, our packaging is 82.51% recyclable by weight.

At our one factory in Porirua we are working with multiple local suppliers to innovate in new materials, coatings and wrapping styles.

We are aiming for circular packaging, as soon as possible. Circular packaging is a focus on products and materials being used over and over in a continuous loop, rather than discarded, to reduce waste.

There are three ways we're working towards circular packaging: