Mars doubts it can achieve 2025 sustainable packaging targets

August 01, 2024

The company says “the design and infrastructure changes needed are taking longer than we anticipated” to enable circularity for packaging.

Mars — a company known for its candy bars but that also makes other food and pet food — is joining a chorus of CPGs that are casting doubt on achieving their 2025 packaging circularity aims ahead of next year.

The company reported in its recently released 2023 sustainability report that while it’s making “good progress” on goals aligned with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global commitment, “the design and infrastructure changes needed are taking longer than we anticipated.” As such, “we are unlikely to fully meet them by the end of 2025.”

Mars did not comment on whether it would push out the date for the EMF-aligned goals or set new sustainable packaging goals.

Allison Lin, global vice president of packaging sustainability and chief circularity officer at Mars, said in an emailed statement that the company is working “to redesign more than 12,000 packaging units and eliminate unnecessary packaging wherever possible,” through “removing certain packaging formats and materials, moving to mono-materials, switching to paper, and exploring reuse.” Examples include switching multimaterial plastic pet food bags to monomaterial polypropylene for brands like Pedigree and Iams. The company also highlighted that it has nearly eliminated PVC from its packaging portfolio.

Plastics are a major focus, the report states, as the company sells 210,000 metric tons of plastic annually in its consumer-facing business. A 2023 progress report from EMF shows that amount has been on the rise for Mars since 2019.

In its report, Mars pointed to the importance of advancing recycling infrastructure. The company said “almost half” of its packaging portfolio is being redesigned or eliminated to align with current or future recycling infrastructure. Flexible plastics, in particular, like those traditionally used for candy bar wrappers, have very limited outlets for recycling.

“Regardless of our redesign efforts, our products will only be fully circular when the necessary waste management, collection, sorting, and recycling infrastructure exists at scale, and we are working actively with governments and NGOs to drive this change,” Lin said.

In 2022, for instance, while Mars reported that 45% of packaging was designed for recycling, only 20% of its portfolio was actually considered reusable, recyclable or compostable. The 2023 report focused solely on design for circularity, a metric that covers reuse, recycling and composting.

Lin noted the company has “a long way to go” but has “strong plans in place.”

The company tried recyclable paper-based candy bar packaging in Australia last year. Mars did not comment on the status of those efforts.

Elsewhere in 2023, Mars Wrigley UK ran a limited-time pilot program with recyclable paper packaging on Mars bars and Mars China launched a Snickers cereal bar in a monomaterial polypropylene wrapper.

In the U.S., Mars has piloted paper-wrapped Kind snack bars and M&M packages, the company reported. It also launched a limited-run, BPI-certified compostable M&Ms bag on the West Coast.

Mars said more than 400 senior leaders’ compensation is tied to delivering on sustainable packaging targets, up from 300 in 2022.

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