Easter bunny champions responsible procurement

06 Apr 2010

Chocolate Easter eggs have been around since the 1800s. They started in Germany and France and soon took off throughout the rest of the world.

Today Cadbury's Creme Egg, which first went on sale in 1971, is the most popular, selling more than 300 million worldwide. In the UK they are made at a rate of 1.5 million a day, and are now also produced under licence in the US and New Zealand.
 
There have been many developments in Easter eggs since these early days and more recently a move towards sustainably sourced cocoa and reduced packaging.

The Cadbury's 'eco-egg' for example is simply foil wrapped, reducing the amount of plastic used by 78% and cardboard by 65%.

A survey by Friends of the Earth Scotland revealed that in some cases for every £1 consumers spend on Easter eggs they could be spending the same or more again on packaging. It estimated that 4,370 tonnes of cardboard and 160 tonnes of foil waste was created by the packaging used to protect Easter eggs.

Click here for cocoa facts and figures.