Cadbury owner Mondelez has hit a milestone of reducing virgin plastic in its UK operations by over 1,000 tonnes in 2023.

It comes after the confectionary giant made positive packaging changes on several products, including selected Christmas selection boxes and Milk Tray, which now include trays made with 80% rPET which is widely collected as part of household recycling.

Cadbury Milk Tray has also removed the cellophane plastic wrapping from the outside of the product.

Later this year, Mondelez will initiate the next phase of its packaging strategy as it plans to replace the rPET used in Christmas selection box trays with carboard.

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It comes following previous packaging developments which were made to the Cadbury Dairy Milk sharing bar which now includes 30% certified recycled plastic within its packaging.

The moves form part of the businesses ‘Pack Light and Right’ sustainable packaging strategy and part of its wider global ambitions to reduce virgin plastic packaging by 5% by 2025.

Mondelez International UK sustainability lead Joanna Dias said: “I am proud to see even more positive changes being made to packaging across Mondelez’s portfolio, the innovation and drive from the business to make a significant difference and achieve its ambitious net-zero targets is clear to see.

“At Mondelez we want to accelerate the impact and meaningful change we can make as business, and projects such as this to reduce the amount of virgin plastic in a number of our products demonstrates just that.”