Mondelēz rolls out chocolate packaging with 75% chemically recycled content

An industry group including LyondellBasell (LYB), Mondelēz International, Amcor, and Taghleef Industries has partnered to create a flexible packaging solution featuring chemically recycled content for Marabou chocolate bars. 

The packaging solution features 75% recycled content using LYB’s CirculenRevive polymers and an ISCC Plus certified mass balance approach. 

Yvonne van der Laan, executive VP for Sustainable Solutions and Technology Business at LYB, says: “Our collaboration with Mondelēz illustrates our shared vision for the future and highlights our ability to provide, high-quality circular solutions tailored to demanding specifications.”

In the collaboration, LYB supplies the circular polymers, Taghleef Industries develops the base film, and Amcor converts the material into the final flexible packaging solution for Mondelēz. 

Hard-to-recycle packaging

LYB’s CirculenRevive polymers are created through chemical recycling that converts hard-to-recycle mixed plastic waste into feedstock for polymer production.

In the future, LYB underscores that it aims to supply the polymers for the Marabou packaging through its MoReTec 1 catalytic chemical recycling plant. The new chemical recycling facility aims to connect advanced sorting and recycling infrastructure with its existing crackers. 

Richard Akkermans, packaging sustainability manager at Mondelēz, adds: “Looking ahead, our ambition is to increase the use of recycled plastic in our packaging materials, and we’re proud to collaborate with multiple value chain players, including LYB and other industry leaders, on this journey.”

“For consumers, the message is simple: plastic packaging can be recycled and allocated back into new food packaging. This initiative shows what becomes possible when brand owners, recyclers, packaging material producers and converters work together to turn circular ambition into commercial reality.”

Chemical recycling advances 

LYB says that the new Marabou flexible packaging supports the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation. 

Moreover, it argues that chemical recycling can “help address flexible packaging waste,” which has traditionally been “challenging” to recycle into new food-contact materials. 

In recent chemical recycling developments, Neste, Alterra, and Technip Energies launched Nerea, a modular chemical recycling plant solution designed to standardize processes and accelerate industry adoption.

Meanwhile, The European Chemical Industry Council called for EU-wide harmonized end-of-waste criteria for chemical recycling, while SCS Standards introduced a new certification standard. 

Additionally, international oil company Shell, alongside recyclers Renewi and BlueAlp, partnered with researchers from Utrecht University, the Netherlands, to develop catalyst and adsorbent materials designed to address “critical bottlenecks” in current chemical recycling processes.