Cadbury

The “evolution” of Cadbury packaging from paper, to paper and foil, to plastic. In 2009, Cadbury switched to plastic packaging.

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I sent this letter to Cadbury on the 21/01/19. Cadbury divides itself into territories and is owned by parent company Mondelez International. I used the customer query form for Ireland, here and there’s a customer services email address that seems international: consumer.relations1@cadbury.com . There’s also a UK query form here.

I’ll post responses from the company. Let me know if you’ve joined me in mailing Cadbury! Comment here or tweet me.

Dear Cadbury,

You’ve been making much-loved sweet treats for generations of people and you have many loyal customers.

However, for over 100 years, your bars were packaged in paper and foil. In 2009 you made the very disappointing decision to switch your packaging to single-use plastics across almost all of your best-selling bars, including the iconic Dairy Milk.

Your ten-year challenge really isn’t making you look so sweet.

I’m writing to you to ask you to consider turning back the clock and reinstating your foil/paper packaging design on your bars. While you’re at it, you could ensure that the paper you use is recycled, and uses non-toxic inks. I understand that you probably believe that your brightly coloured packaging gives you a competitive edge against other brands, and that you may suffer marginally more spoilage loss by reverting to paper packaging.

But you made over $3 billion in net revenues in 2016. You can afford to take a small hit to do the right thing by the planet and your customers.

Single use plastic is one of the huge environmental issues of our time. The plastics you are producing have a life span of 100s of years and you sell almost 1 million bars per day of Dairy Milk alone to customers around the world. It’s not enough to say your packaging will be “recyclable” by 2025 when you could make a simple change and revert to your history of paper and foil packaging.

For a much-loved brand like yours to take a strong leadership role in pushing for change would send a very strong message.

Many of your most loyal customers are children and parents of children. For the sake of a sustainable environment for your future generations of customers, I’m urging you to do the right thing and commit to eliminating single-use plastic from your packaging.

Many thanks,

Ellie O’Byrne

Response:

Dear Ms. O’Byrne,

Thank you for your recent email.

Our prime concern is that the product reaches our consumers in perfect condition. Great care is taken in the design of our packaging, and the materials used; we have dedicated teams that use state-of-the-art technology to develop innovative and durable packaging concepts which are continuously reviewed, taking into account any consumer feedback we receive. Accordingly, whilst there are no immediate plans to change the design of this particular product’s packaging, please be assured that your comments will be conveyed to the relevant colleagues, for continuous improvement purposes.

We’ll continue to lead the way in reducing packaging waste and plan to eliminate 65,000 tonnes of packaging material by 2020 to help reduce waste.

Collaboration across our R&D, category and region teams between 2010-2014 resulted in more than 600 projects that eliminated packaging; we eliminated 40,000 tonnes (89 million pounds) of packaging, exceeding our target by 78 percent, and saving an estimated 100,000 tonnes of annual CO2 emissions.

Many of the packaging materials we use are recyclable although facilities for recycling in your area may differ from those in neighbouring areas. We therefore advise you to check with your local authority regarding what they currently recycle and how their infrastructure is developing in future. As well as checking with your local authority, you can easily find out where and what can be recycled at www.recyclenow.com For more information, you can also visit http://www.mondelezinternational.com/well-being/sustainable-resources-and-agriculture where we share relevant news.
Thank you once again for taking the time to contact us.

Kind Regards,
Jodie

I wrote back:

Dear Jodie,

thanks very much for your response. I’m not asking for Cadbury to “reduce packaging,” I’m asking for a very specific packaging redesign to eliminate single use plastic, which in the case of Cadbury is as simple as winding back the clock a decade. Is there anywhere I can access information on the customer feedback you have received on your switch to plastic from paper and foil?

many thanks,

Ellie

I got no response so I wrote back:

Hi Jodie,

I’m still waiting for a response on this: Where is the customer feedback that Cadbury’s customers prefer plastic packaging please? Is there someone else I could get in contact with for this information?

many thanks,

Ellie

Dear Ms. O’Byrne,

Thank you for your reply.

I have forwarded you inquiry to higher management, so at the moment I am waiting for them to get back to me with the information. Once I receive this I will forward it on to you.

Kind regards,

Jodie

I replied:

Thanks very much. I believe you’ve been in receipt of a number of emails similar to mine this week. In my conversations with others I have yet to find one customer who said they prefer the plastic, or who express anything other than a wish for Cadbury to return to their original degradable packaging. So I look forward to a response regarding the customer feedback.
Ellie

Dear Ms O’Byrne,

Thank you your further interest.

One of the main purposes of any packaging is to protect the product. Food waste is an

important issue and packaging plays a key role in reducing this. From leaving our

factories to the shops, products can travel on a number of journeys and it is extremely

important that our customers and consumers receive our goods in perfect condition.

We want to minimize plastic waste as part of our long-term vision for zero-net waste

packaging; however, plastic is a highly efficient and effective packaging material and a

key element for food safety and quality. Without it, the shelf life of many products would

be far shorter and would create more food waste – a far worse problem for the

environment. Our current packaging better guarantees the freshness of the product for

the length of its shelf life and also reduces the possibility of the bar picking up a taint

from the surrounding environment during transit and storage when compared to our

previous foil and paper wrappers.

In Europe around 75% of our packaging is paper, glass or metal, all of which are

recyclable, and the majority of our paper comes from recycled sources.

The other 25% of our packaging is mainly thin, flexible plastic films, of which 80%

(and growing) are recyclable and we’re moving the remainder of our flexible packaging

to single materials where possible.
We are still committed to reducing the overall amount of packaging that is used in our

products. However it would be counter-productive to just swap out one material for

another especially if that material is not recyclable, or is heavier and greater in volume,

or does not sufficiently protect the product and leads to food waste.

Our focus is to continue to work on making all our packaging recyclable and to make it

easier for consumers to recycle packaging and supporting industry coalitions to improve

recycling rates.

Thank you again for emailing Mondelez International.

Kind regards,

Jodie

Consumer Care Team

Dear Jodie,

in a previous email, you asserted that your packaging had been developed in part with consumer feedback in mind. I had

asked you for details of what consumer feedback had been received that your customers would prefer single use plastic as

packaging. Can you provide these please?

You say that “in Europe, around 75% of our packaging is paper, glass or metal.” Are you referring to Mondelez products here? I am

writing to you specifically regarding Cadbury, a company with a history of over 100 years of successful trading without single use plastics.

I am asking that Mondelez respect this tradition and the growing demand from consumers for action on the topic of single use plastics

and reinstate the original packaging.

I have to say I’m hugely disappointed by these responses which are absolute PR guff, totally misleading and disingenuous and a clear

indicator of the respect Mondelez has for its customers.

Your assertion that food waste is a “far worse problem” for the environment than the production of millions of pieces of single use

plastic per year is a bizarre one. Chocolate is biodegradable, while your terrible packaging will live on for hundreds of years – a

completely unsustainable state of affairs. In reality, food waste is a worse problem in terms of profits, unless the company shorten its supply

chains, make smaller batches and employ more staff.

Recycling is a complete scam. Only 9% of plastics ever produced have been recycled. Focusing on making your packaging recyclable

when a simple and effective way of eliminating single-use plastic from a range of your products exists is not enough. You need to do more

to protect the environment and eliminate the production of single-use plastics, and you have the power to do so.

Ellie

Dear Ms. O’Byrne,

We’re very sorry to learn that you remain dissatisfied with our response to date.

We would like to clarify that we did not clam that consumers prefer plastic packaging ; we stated that all consumer feedback is taken into account. As previously advised, we do have plans in place to eliminate 65,000 tonnes of packaging material by 2020 to help reduce waste, whilst ensuring the integrity and freshness of our products is not compromised and does not lead to increases in food waste.

Thank you once again for taking the time to contact us.

Kind regards,

Jodie

Consumer Care Team

The very wonderful Vicky, who emailed as well, initially got the same response as me. Then she got this:

Thank you for getting in touch. We’re pleased to share our global packaging commitments with you:

Mondelēz International commits to making all packaging recyclable by 2025, and
all paper-based packaging will be sustainably sourced by 2020
65 million kg of packaging material worldwide will be eliminated by 2020
Recycling information will be provided in markets around the world by 2025.

Too little, too late, Mondelez. You have a very simple redesign here that can eliminate millions of pieces of single-use plastic per day.

Meanwhile, Kevin sent me this response that he got:

Please know that we highly value all the comments we receive, and we ensure that every complaint, suggestion or request is conveyed to the relevant colleagues. Accordingly, please be absolutely assured that that your feedback will be included in future evaluations. Thank you for taking the time and trouble to contact us.

Mojca R.

Consumer Care Team

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