Nestlé launches plastic-free wrapped snack bar

Nestlé has launched their new 100% recyclable paper packaged YES! Snack Bars, the first paper-packaged confectionary bar made under large-scale production.

The bars have been made with innovative machinery that has created the first confectionary bar using high-speed flow wrap technology.

Previously the technology has only been usable with plastic film and laminates due to paper packaging not producing as long a shelf-life or at as high-speed required from large-scale industry.

After ten months, Nestlé has become the pioneer in high-speed paper packaging, finding a method that allows the packaging to be produced at large scale, with the same product quality and freshness. The discovery holds the potential for recyclable paper to be used in the wider confectionary industry and reducing packaging waste.

Head of Strategic Business Units, Marketing and Sales at Nestlé, Patrice Bula said: "Consumers are looking for more natural and sustainable options when they choose a snack, both in terms of ingredients and packaging. Our YES! bars are made with wholesome ingredients that celebrate and care for Nature's diversity. We are now relaunching them carefully wrapped in paper, making the packaging easy to recycle and avoiding plastic waste."

The paper is sustainably sourced, certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and The Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification.

Nestlé’s lead on innovation and sustainability, Michael Carroll added that the paper “will degrade in a marine environment within six months, which, compared to the flow wrap that it's currently in, it's about 450 years."

YES! Will be launched in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. Nestlé have said more European countries will soon follow.

The recyclable wrapper has been implemented under Nestlé’s commitment to ensure all of their packaging is recyclable or reusable by 2025.

The company has made progress under other packaging targets, avoiding 118,710 tonnes of unnecessary packaging since 2015 to reach their 140,000 tonnes goal in 2020.

Read the full press release here.

Image: Nestlé (no changes made)