Smarties is moving its chocolate sharing blocks into recyclable paper wrappers.

The Nestlé brand, which plans to sell all of its products in paper by 2021. It is the first time the high-speed print technology has been used at such scale – some 3.5 million Smarties blocks are sold every year. The packs themselves are paper with a dispersion coating which acts as a barrier to moisture and oxygen to preserve freshness.

“Paper is not like plastic – you cannot treat it exactly like you would on a normal wrapping set-up, you have to adapt the whole process from start to finish to make sure you can handle the product gently,” said Nestlé packaging lead Bruce Funnell.

Nestlé has pledged to transition all its packaging to recyclable or reusable materials and reduce its use of virgin plastic by one third by 2025.

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