Ferrero reveals thinner Kinder Bueno plastic wrapper, partners with HolyGrail 2.0

The Ferrero Group is introducing thinner Kinder Bueno plastic packaging material, and piloting paper-based external packaging for its Kinder bakery range in Italy. 

Meanwhile, the business has struck new global partnerships with HolyGrail 2.0 and Consumer Goods Forum (CGF). The objective of HolyGrail 2.0 is to prove the viability of digital watermarking technologies for the accurate sorting of packaging waste at a large scale. 

These four initiatives support Ferrero’s commitment to make all its packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. 

“Over the last few months, we partnered with over 85 companies on the digital watermarks project HolyGrail 2.0, a transformative program testing how digital technology can enable better sorting and higher-quality recycling for packaging,” highlights Fabio Mora, global packaging director of the Ferrero Group.

He further views the CGF’s new Golden Design rules as “another commitment” to assess and redesign the critical elements of packaging. Moreover, the new chocolate confectionery packaging aligns with Ferrero’s “ambition to accelerate sustainable innovation.”

These four initiatives support Ferrero’s commitment to make all its packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. Kinder packaging for the environment
According to Ferrero, Kinder Bueno’s thinned material delivers a thickness reduction of approximately 20 percent compared with standard films. The thinner material will be introduced to Kinder Bueno and other selected products starting from 2022.

The move will lead to an initial annual reduction of approximately 550 tons of materials, saving around 1,450 tons of CO2 compared to the previous packaging. 

Meanwhile, Ferrero’s paper-based wrappers for its Kinder bakery range target Kinder Délice and Kinder Brioss. 

The new packaging wraps Kinder bakery products in paper films that are recyclable in Italian waste streams. If successful, the paper packaging will be rolled out across the business’ entire portfolio of bakery products in the Italian market. 

Paper packaging is becoming more popular in chocolate confectionery, as evidenced by Balisto, Ritter Sport and Tony’s Chocolonely’s new solutions. 

Nestlé’s Smarties also tested recyclable paper wrappers for its Smarties chocolate bar last year before transitioning its entire Smarties brand to recyclable paper packaging in February.

The Golden Design Rules
Ferrero signed the CGF Plastic Waste Coalition’s nine “Golden Design Rules” to assess and redesign critical packaging elements, ranging from eliminating excess headspace to reducing plastic overwraps and using on-pack recycling instructions.

The rules also aim to:

• Increase the value of PET, PP and rigid HDPE recycling.
• Increase recycling value in flexible consumer packaging.
• Remove problematic elements from packaging.
• Reduce virgin plastic use in B2B plastic packaging.
• Increase recycling value for PET thermoformed trays and other PET thermoformed packaging.

“As long-standing partners with the CGF, Ferrero shares the organization’s vision that the transition to a circular economy requires a different approach to plastic usage, from production, consumption and reuse, to recycling and disposal,” states the company.

Meanwhile, Ferrero’s Holy Grail 2.0 pilot aims to put in place sorting for a dedicated stream of food packaging plastics. This will, in turn, generate recycled materials for reuse in line with circular economy best practices.

In other HolyGrail 2.0 developments, PepsiCo trialed products encoded with invisible digital watermarks last September.

PackagingInsights also spoke in-depth with Paccor and Digimarc about their digital watermark collaboration.

Edited by Anni Schleicher