IN Brief:
- Pladis reports that 94% of the plastic packaging across its global portfolio was designed to be recycle-ready at the end of 2025.
- McVitie’s completed internal testing of alternative packaging across the Digestives range, with rollout continuing in 2026.
- A new target seeks a 10% reduction in virgin plastic use by 2030, measured against the 2025 baseline.
Snack and biscuit manufacturer pladis says 94% of the plastic packaging used across its global snack portfolio was designed to be recycle-ready at the end of 2025, following material changes across brands including McVitie’s, Ülker and Sultana. The result falls short of the group’s earlier ambition for all its plastic packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable by that date, and leaves a proportion of formats requiring further work.
The manufacturer published the figure alongside its 2025 sustainability results on 8 October. It has also introduced a target to reduce the amount of virgin plastic it uses by 10% by 2030, against a 2025 baseline. The new measure concerns material consumption, whereas recycle readiness concerns the design of packaging for recovery. A lighter pack may still be difficult to recycle, just as a more readily recyclable material may use the same weight of plastic as its predecessor.
McVitie’s completed development and internal testing of recycle-ready packs for the entire Digestives range during 2025. Conversion of the range began that year and is continuing through the remaining formats in 2026. The work includes replacing packaging that uses polyethylene terephthalate laminates, although the company has not released production line performance figures for the alternative structures. Testing across the range should not be mistaken for evidence that every new pack has already reached the market.
Elsewhere in the portfolio, Ülker Kakao changed from a composite pack to a recycle-ready single-material pouch, which pladis says reduced plastic use by 18% for that application. Sultana Yofruit adopted a polypropylene wrapper with the intention of improving its recyclability while maintaining pack performance. The reported percentage for Ülker is specific to the redesigned format; it cannot be applied to plastic consumption across the wider business.
Film structure governs shelf life, seal integrity and machine compatibility across the brands being converted. A biscuit wrapper needs to resist moisture ingress to preserve texture, provide a reliable seal and tolerate the handling loads imposed by filling, distribution and retail display. Composite laminates can combine films with different barrier and mechanical properties, but their multiple constituents may be difficult to separate in conventional recycling systems. The alternative is to meet the relevant performance specification with a structure that has a clearer recycling pathway.
Using a predominantly single-polymer structure can make sorting and mechanical recycling more practicable, provided any coatings, inks, adhesives and other components remain compatible with the intended process. It does not eliminate the need for barrier performance, and a package designed around one polymer can still fail commercial trials if seals leak, film tracking becomes unstable or the food loses shelf life. Pladis has not provided comparative figures for seal defects, material loss, wrapping speed or product shelf life following the Digestives conversion.
Packaging lines operate within defined ranges for web tension, heat sealing, film stiffness and machine speed, so changing the structure can require new film specifications and machine settings before output is consistent. The group’s reported work establishes that it has tested the redesigned Digestives formats internally and begun deployment, but does not establish that every line runs them at unchanged throughput.
Pladis has also begun a digital watermark trial on Sultana packaging in Belgium through the HolyGrail 2030 consortium. The trial is intended to help sorting systems recognise packaging and direct it towards an appropriate recycling stream. Its presence in a trial does not mean watermark-enabled sorting is deployed across the markets in which the products are sold, or guarantee that identified packaging will ultimately be recycled.
The 94% result is consequently a design measure, not a recycling rate. Whether consumers can dispose of a pack through household collections or retail take-back schemes varies by location, while actual recovery also depends on contamination, sorting equipment and viable end markets. Pladis recognises this distinction in its packaging disclosures, which track readiness because available collection and recycling infrastructure differs between countries.
Material reduction introduces an additional set of trade-offs. Making film thinner can reduce virgin resin demand, but also changes resistance to puncture and tearing, heat-seal behaviour and the ability to protect a brittle food product. A move to a single-material pack can lower the complexity of recycling without automatically reducing weight. The 2030 virgin plastic target will therefore need to be assessed separately from the proportion of packs judged recycle-ready.
The packaging work is part of a wider environmental programme under which pladis has secured its first Science Based Targets initiative validation. Its commitment includes reducing Scope 3 emissions by 35% by 2034 relative to 2023; the company says these value chain emissions account for 91% of its total footprint. The report also references a £68 million multiyear programme across UK bakeries involving equipment such as moulding lines, ovens and robotics. That investment was announced before the current reporting period and is not a new October commitment.
With Digestives conversion still being completed and the remaining plastic formats unresolved, the company has reported more progress in designing packaging for recovery than in demonstrating material actually recovered after use. Future evidence will depend on the commercial performance of the replacement films, measurable reductions in virgin plastic and the availability of sorting and recycling systems able to process the structures placed on the market.
