Visitors eat imitation food packaging waste, made from chocolate, at Montezuma’s ‘Waste Not, Want Not’ recyclable chocolate shop, in Covent Garden, London. The pop-up shop lets customers swap old food packaging for chocolate and treats, to celebrate Montezuma’s switch to 100% sustainable packaging across its whole range. Photo credit: Matt Crossick
You don’t have to be a genius to realise that landfill and carbon footprints are contributing to environmental harm and global warming. However, you probably do need to be a genius to get everyone to think about day to day packaging.
Those clever people at Montezuma’s take their chocolate seriously and their environmental impact just as seriously, which is good news for us all.
Montezuma’s wants people to re-think their daily habits by saying no to waste and yes to chocolate and it’s doing so in the most appetising manner.
Montezuma’s is inviting people to experience the sweet side of eco living, with its ‘WASTE NOT, WANT NOT RECYCLABLE SHOP’ in Covent Garden. To celebrate the launch of the brand’s new sustainable packaging, the award-winning British chocolate company is opening a pop-up shop, where you can swap your unwanted packaging for tailor-made treats, designed to imitate some of the biggest waste culprits in the UK food industry – think grab-and-go salad bowls, sandwich wrappers and those iconic black sushi trays.
Montezuma Chocolate managing director Bruce Alexander at Montezuma’s ‘Waste Not, Want Not’ recyclable chocolate shop, in Covent Garden, London.Photo credit: Matt Crossick
The beautiful, bespoke treats may look like trash, but they are actually formed from Montezuma’s classic white chocolate, filled with its indulgent truffle centre, and hand painted for a realistic finish! All chocolate lovers need to do to get their hands on these decadent chocolates, is simply hand over their used food containers – proving that recycling has more than just the one benefit.
Sitting in the window of the store is a fully edible 3D artwork, made to replicate a bin overflowing with non-recyclable rubbish. The piece will highlight the unrecycled waste that ends up on landfill each year. The indulgent installation will be lit up 24 hours a day, to inspire passers-by to make more sustainable choices when it comes to food.
Photo credit: Matt Crossick
The venture comes in the wake of Montezuma’s newly designed packaging, 100% of the Montezuma’s newly designed packaging is either recyclable, compostable, or biodegradable – a first for a British chocolate company. As well as using recyclable inks, adhesives, stickers and tapes, the company’s best-selling chocolate bars will now be delivered in 100% paper and card cartons, eliminating the non-recyclable metallised wrappers. Look carefully at all the art work as each tells a different story, but you will need to look closely.
Montezuma’s WASTE NOT, WANT NOT RECYCLABLE SHOP is open between 10am and 6pm on 13th and 14th March at 67 Neal Street in Covent Garden, London but don’t worry if you can’t get there because their repackaged fabulously tasty bars can be found in Sainsburys and Waitrose amongst other retailers.