Mars Wrigley to develop home compostable food packaging

Mars Wrigley has partnered with Danimer Scientific, a developer and manufacturer of biodegradable ma…

Mars Wrigley has partnered with Danimer Scientific, a developer and manufacturer of biodegradable materials, to develop home compostable food packaging.

The first brand Mars Wrigley will introduce as part of this two-year partnership will be SKITTLES in the US.

Danimer Scientific’s signature packaging – Nodax polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) – is produced through natural fermentation processes using plant oils such as soy and canola and biodegrades in both soil and marine environments.

Mars will continue to evaluate opportunities to scale this novel, innovative and sustainable packaging technology across its portfolio of brands and categories.

The company’s plan to introduce NodaxPHA into flexible and rigid packaging that reliably breaks down in both industrial composting facilities and backyard compost units, offering an enhanced value proposition for environmentally conscious consumers and retailers.

Sourced from the seeds of plants such as canola and soy, NodaxPHA can serve as an alternative to traditional petrochemical plastic and has been certified as biodegradable in soil and marine environments.

In addition to better end-of-life options, NodaxPHA is renewably sourced, making it a truly circular material that helps eliminate waste.

The aim of this collaboration is new, biodegradable packaging for various Mars Wrigley brands, starting with smaller and single packs that are more likely to be littered and typically less likely to be recycled.

Mars Wrigley is leaning into this problem by creating new-to-world packs for a wide range of formats that can significantly support a sustainable planet.

Initial development work with kick off in North America with the goal of reaching additional markets with underdeveloped recycling infrastructures where littering and leakage into nature are especially problematic.

Mars Wrigley’s first on-the-shelf offerings are tentatively targeted for late 2021 or early 2022, featuring their SKITTLES brand in the US.

“The impact of plastic on nature is one of the major sustainability challenges of our generation. There are no simple solutions and transformational innovation is necessary, we have to think and act differently,” said Alastair Child, Mars Wrigley VP of Global Sustainability.

“Collaborating with Danimer to advance this breakthrough technology represents a major step to creating positive societal impact and better environmental outcomes across the full lifecycle of small, flexible packaging.”