Mars China has introduced its new Snickers low-glycemic index (GI) dark chocolate cereal bar in mono material flexible packaging.

The new product’s packaging is made using polypropylene (PP) material, which can be easily recycled in designated channels.

This is in line with the company’s principle of “Designed For Recycling”, meeting relevant Chinese standards and contributing to a more sustainable planet.

The outer packaging box of the new Snickers bar uses paper material certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

It will further allow Mars China to minimise its dependence on plastic and support sustainable forest management.

Snickers low GI chocolate bar in recyclable packaging is already available in select outlets across China, including Douyin and Tmall Snickers official flagship stores and a few Hema stores.

Mars China has also implemented a comprehensive internal validation as well as quality standards.

Through this, the company intends to ensure that Snickers packaging materials can fulfil the food safety requirements for product protection.

All these efforts to improve the packaging design of its products reinforces Mars’ commitment to drive sustainable packaging iteration.

According to Mars China, it has been continuously working to reimagine and redesign its packaging. The company aims to prevent its packaging from becoming waste by making it recyclable, reusable, and compostable.

The company also actively promotes the establishment of a circular economy closed-loop system in China.

Currently, Mars China is working in collaboration with several organisations to facilitate the "Flexible Plastics Reborn" project.

These organisations include Green Recycled Plastic Supply Chain Joint Working Group, China Plastic Recycling Association of China National Resources Recycling Association, PepsiCo, Dow and P&G.

Under this project, the industry partners are exploring to establish a sustainable flexible plastic packaging collection and recycling closed-loop system in China.

The project addresses various design, collection, and recycling challenges.

The new Snickers mono-material flexible packaging is also designed as per the recycling requirements of this project.

Snickers is further seeking consumers’ support for collecting and dropping their used mono-flexible package at designated collection points covered under Flexible Plastics Reborn project.

In February 2023, Mars China rolled out its first package made entirely from post-consumer recycled polyethylene terephthalate.