News Date: Thursday 26th March 2009
Local MP joins Cadbury and the National Trust to conserve the environment
Tim Loughton MP yesterday joined Cadbury and the National Trust to cut down on unnecessary packaging in order to help conserve the environment.
At Cadbury’s annual Easter reception in the House of Commons, Tim Loughton MP pledged to avoid buying products with too much packaging and to recycle more plastic and cardboard waste. This follows Cadbury’s commitment to cut packaging on its Easter ‘Eco-Eggs’ as part of its ‘Purple Goes Green’ environmental initiative.[i]
Tim Loughton MP said:
“It is great to see companies like Cadbury taking action to protect the environment, but it is important for everyone to play their part. For example, every time you recycle a ton of newspaper you save 24 trees.”[ii]
Easter is usually one of the confectionery industry’s most packaging-heavy times of the year, but Cadbury has been dramatically reducing the amount of cardboard and plastic that it uses to package its Easter eggs.
Last year, Cadbury launched two ranges of `Eco-Eggs` called Cadbury Treasure Eggs and Eggheads, which are simply wrapped in foil rather than being sold in a presentation box. Cadbury will be giving these eggs away at National Trust[iii] Easter Egg Trails across the country.[iv]
This year, for those shoppers who still want a traditional egg in a presentation box, Cadbury is cutting the packaging on its Medium boxed eggs by 25% and Large boxed eggs by 30%.
By taking these measures, Cadbury has saved:
- approximately 302 tonnes of cardboard, the equivalent of 5135 trees
- approximately 283 tonnes of plastic, enough to make 6.74 million 1.5L plastic bottles.
