Quality Street makes huge change to box - and fans may be divided

These new tubs are part of a trial and will be available starting next Monday at 60 Tesco supermarkets in the UK. If the trial is successful, then Nestle could roll out them out even further

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Nestle has made a huge change to its Quality Street tubs for the festive season this year.

The chocolate maker has decided to ditch its purple plastic packaging and will replace it with paper tubs instead. The new paper tubs will have eight sides, and the background will feature a cartoon design of all the different chocolates from the Quality Street box. The signature Quality Street logo is placed at the front and centre of the top.

These new tubs are part of a trial and will be available starting next Monday at 60 Tesco supermarkets in the UK. If the trial is successful, then Nestle could roll out them out even further. The food giant said the tub has a luxury design and feel, as it is embellished with gold foil. The tub also has a re-close feature, and once empty, households can simply throw the tub into their normal recycling.

The move aims to cut the company's use of virgin plastic. Customers who may be a tad concerned about the new packaging should breathe a sigh of relief as shoppers will still be able to purchase the plastic tub, tin, pouch, and carton at stores nationwide this Christmas.

Jemma Handley, Senior Brand Manager for Quality Street, said: “We’re looking forward to seeing what Quality Street fans make of the paper tub. A lot of care and hard work has gone into the trial and we’re proud to be the first major manufacturer to trial a paper tub at Christmas. The beautiful design has been devised specifically for a paper product and we love how it looks, and of course, shoppers can expect the same great tasting Quality Street sweets that they know and love inside.”

“We know there are some Quality Street fans who, controversially, like to put their wrappers back in the tub once they’ve eaten them - with the paper tub, they can put the paper wrappers back for a good reason - it can go straight into the recycling.”

The shake-up is part of a wider industry drive to make its packaging more sustainable. In 2022, Quality Street replaced its colourful plastic wrappers with recyclable paper ones and received mixed reviews. One TikTok posted by a former Quality Street fan went viral after she called it a “travesty” saying: "Who wants to eat this piece of garbage?” Even if not everyone was a fan, the 2022 switch to paper kept around 2billion wrappers a year out of landfill.