May 27 2020  |  Confectionery & Fine Foods

Nestlé ITR announces its sustainability pledge for 2025

By Laura Shirk

With a new version of its Travel Retail Smarties Music Creator, Nestlé aims to make 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable in the next five years

With Nestlé announcing its ambition to make 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025, Nestlé ITR has chosen Smarties to become the first global children’s confectionery brand to incorporate no single use plastic packaging. The travel retail exclusive Smarties Music Creator is the first product to meet the new guidelines, with all single use plastic packaging replaced by a recyclable carton box.

The colorful, durable flute within (intended for use multiple times) is plastic and now supported by online, digital content in order to increase its lifespan (via www.nestletravelretail.com), as well as the included learn-to-play guide and music sheet. Together, these help children learn how to read and play music and provide step-by-step guides to playing simple songs.

Aligned with NITR’s Learn Through Play framework, the Smarties Music Creator first appeared in 2019. Proving extremely popular, Nestlé ITR decided to accelerate the removal of single use plastics for the product and over the course of seven months worked with internal and external members to improve the item for release – sooner than its intended goal. The original, plastic packaging used on the first iteration of the product is no longer available.

Although paper packaging is often more expensive to produce than plastic, Nestlé ITR worked to keep any price increase as low as possible, also devising a clever outer, secondary container that can be used to transport the flute. In addition to the musical instrument, the learn-to-play guide and the new online content can be accessed for free on the NITR website. The Smarties Music Creator comes with 1 x 38-g tube of Smarties.

“Clearly these are unprecedented times and the COVID-19 crisis will impact the immediate roll-out of the new Smarties Music Creator. However, in the mid-long term, demand for recyclable and eco-friendly solutions will only increase and with Smarties we will be ready with these solutions.

Sales for the first version of the Smarties Music Creator were incredibly positive and we have every reason to believe that this more sustainable version will be an even greater success. In 2019, Smarties set the ambitious target of being the first global children’s confectionery brand to remove single use plastics. We look forward to continuing this journey in 2021 and the years to come,” says Stewart Dryburgh, General Manager, Nestlé ITR.

REGION Americas
Copyright 2024 DutyFree Magazine. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy Sitemap