The other aspect of the challenge here in the U.S. is accessibility, while in other parts of the world they’re a few steps ahead. In Australia, for example, soft plastics from many chocolate and lollipop wrappers are recyclable through the Red Cycle collection bins available at most supermarkets. The wrappers are recycled and then used to make products like benches and fences.
The “Trick”: Thinking Outside the “Zero Waste” Box
Traditionally recycling would be as easy as dropping the wrappers in your curbside cart, but because candy wrapping is made with mixed materials and can’t usually be sorted that’s not possible. A few local markets offer special solutions, so if you have access to one of those count yourself as lucky, but most consumers in the U.S. can’t utilize their curbside collection program. There are, however, a few alternative solutions that build on the power of many by recycling in bulk.
Enter waste collection boxes, a relatively new approach to recycling your wrappers and the only widely available solution in the U.S. market. Variations like TerraCycle’s Zero Waste Box and Rubicon’s Trick or Trash box allow for recycling of any size or brand of candy and snack wrapper.
The “Treat”: An Investment For Your Community and Beyond
Purchasing just one box can bring together an entire neighborhood. It’s much larger than any one family would need, so use it as a way to bring your neighbors together. By having a few houses chip in, the effort not only becomes more economical, it helps advance the next evolution of recycling.
This year, Rubicon distributed at least one Trick or Trash box to schools and small businesses in every U.S. state. The more we embrace innovations like these, the more accessible they become, and the fewer materials go to waste.
I am confident that in the not too distant future our favorite candies will be wrapped in materials that are 100% recyclable, but until then, we shouldn’t be “scared” away from the best options of today.
Everything you need to know about candy packaging
The phrase ‘looks aren’t everything’ almost certainly does not apply to new products that you want to introduce to the market. After all, there is no doubt; the more attractive the candy boxes and wraps are, the more people will be interested in trying it out.
And although it might be a struggle to keep up with and stand out amongst the latest trends in candy packaging, this step is crucial to create an interesting product your customers will love. So you might be wondering, is it really that important for me to create innovative packaging?
The truth is, you do. The reasoning for this is simple – imagine yourself standing in an aisle in your local grocery store, staring at the hundreds of different candies, each with their own candy packaging.
That is what most of your customers will see when they encounter your product, which is why you need to make it stand out.
Candy Packaging trends
Before you can be innovative, you need to understand what the trends in packaging design are – with this as background knowledge, you can apply your twists to your product in order to truly make it your own.
Convenience Packaging
Put simply, these are the kind of candy boxes and supplies that are convenient to open, use, and discard of. The data, as claimed by other candy brands is consistent: your customers won’t just love candy packaging that is convenient – they may go out of the way and actually pay more for it.
You might have seen this elsewhere when it comes to packaging – the use of clear plastic bags for candy is an obvious choice, and it is clearly one that appeals to the customers as well. These plastic pouches are just so easy to eat from because of their ability to be resealed.
The journey towards paper packaging for chocolate
How do you ensure both barrier functionality and recyclability?
This is indeed a challenge we are facing. We are using a special functional barrier paper. When we started the development process two years ago, there was no functional barrier paper available, but development has moved fast since then. The paper we used is coated with a water-based barrier material that is fit for recycling in the paper recycling stream. Of course, it would have been easy to use lamination instead, as this makes product protection easier. But even a thin layer of laminate makes recycling difficult, which is a key feature for us to give the material a second life. We are already using a lot of recycled paper materials for our displays, trade units etc. What we have now is not perfect yet, but this is a step-by-step process and a development journey. In 2021 we will launch a paper-based pouch, and we will integrate the learnings from that into the development process. We do not know if and how and when we will have 100% of paper-based packaging for 100% of our products, but it is a development journey.