Easter Egg packaging - the eggs-treme truth!

An average of 80 million Easter eggs are sold in the UK each year. This sounds like chocolate heaven but an awful lot of packaging!

But is this really the case? How much do products like Easter Eggs contribute to the total amount of household packaging produced in the UK each year?

The packaging pyramid

Valpak Ltd created a packaging pyramid to show the amount of actual packaging found on 73 different types of products that we buy on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis.

Looks confusing, please explain!

The products are listed on the left, with the items we buy daily at the bottom (milk, eggs, alcohol, fruit & vegetables etc...) and the products we buy on an annual basis at the top of the list (Easter Eggs, luxury products, house improvement items etc..).

The products highlighted in yellow are those that are often considered by consumers to be excessively packaged, including; Easter Eggs, toys, electrical items and organic fruit & vegetables.

The coloured bars in the middle show how much packaging is produced for each of these products. So the longer the bar, the more packaging is produced.

The un-eggs-pected facts!

We can see from the packaging pyramid that Easter Eggs actually only contribute a very small percentage of the total household packaging produced in the UK (0.266% to be eggs-act). Compared to the daily products we buy such as milk, Easter Eggs actually appear to produce very little waste in comparison.

Most of the products that we perceive as being over packaged appear to be mostly seasonal products and ones we buy infrequently. In total these products (highlighted in yellow on the pyramid) account for less than 3% of all used household packaging.

So is excess packaging really a problem?

The packaging for most everyday items is extremely efficient. However, there are concerns about excessive packaging. Often this is packaging for luxury and gift products where the giver wants the packaging to be special and these products are typically seasonal or purchased infrequently. Nevertheless, there are also some examples of products that really are over-packaged and should be improved.

Further information

Packaging and waste statistics on recycle-more »

Packaging facts on recycle-more »

Packaging in Perspective »
Provides facts about packaging recovery and recycling offering an outline of what the UK has achieved and what is being done.