Consumers buying Mars chocolate bars at British multinational grocery Tesco in the coming days will notice a change. The company has chosen to stop using the typical plastic wrapper and return to utilising paper, much like it did up until the mid-1970s, according to The Guardian. The bars might a bit different, however, the firm has assured its customers that this won’t influence how fresh the food is - or they’ll even get a refund! But why is the confectionery maker doing so? Let’s understand. Also read: Plastic Home: How the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now thriving with life Mars’ single-use plastics The confectionery maker Mars Incorporated is testing recyclable paper packaging for a short period of time. Beginning on Monday, over 500 Tesco stores will carry the bars. The organisation is interested in learning more about various packaging options and how they function in real-world situations. It stated that it would use the comments to guide future packaging trial projects. Unlike many other types of food packaging, the plastic that now encases Mars bars cannot be recycled. Mars stated that it was “exploring different types of alternative packaging solutions” for its candy items. The Guardian quoted Richard Sutherland-Moore, a packaging expert at Mars Wrigley UK’s research and development centre, as saying, “For Mars bar, the challenge was to find the right paper packaging solution with an adequate level of barrier properties to protect the chocolate whilst guaranteeing the food safety, quality and integrity of the product to prevent food waste.” In order to accomplish its target of lowering the use of virgin plastics by a quarter in the short term, Mars in a statement said it is spending hundreds of millions of pounds redesigning thousands of types of packaging and expanding the usage of recycled plastic in its packaging. Tesco’s packaging development manager, Andrew Flood, also said that the retailer’s “strategy of removing plastic and packaging in our business where we can, reducing it where we can’t, reusing more and recycling what’s left” was in line with Mars’ trial of its new Mars bar packaging. Also read: South Korea researchers use bacteria to convert CO2 into bioplastic; here’s how The change isn’t the first time… From the time of their introduction in 1932 until 1977, Mars bars were sold in hand-wrapped paper, which was done back then in factories by workers. However, it has been difficult to get equipment to work with materials other than plastic, which is what clients are used to, according to The Sun. Since plastic keeps out moisture and air much better than paper does, shelf life has also been a problem, keeping products fresh for years. Before the middle of the 1970s, consumers did not bother if older chocolate developed a safe white coating. It took Mars approximately two years to obtain the appropriate paper and modify industrial processes, according to Adam Grant of Mars Wrigley UK. Although the company has to leave a “tiny” amount of plastic within the wrapper, this does not prevent it from being recycled or decomposing quickly in landfill. Similar initiatives by food giants Crisps, chocolate, and cheese have historically been recognised as the goods with the lowest packaging recyclability, and major firms have previously faced pressure from consumers and environmentalists to do more to recycle their packaging. The candy company Mars is not the first to experiment with switching out its conventional packaging for something a little more eco-friendly. Prior to last Christmas, Quality Street made the decision to switch from its customary foil and plastic wraps to recyclable paper, according to The Guardian. Nine of the company’s 11 candies were packaged in shiny plastic wrappers for the first time since the brand was introduced in 1936; instead, Nestlé, the brand’s owner, switched to a type of packaging that is collected by the majority of local authorities. The orange crunch and green triangle were not covered in a layer of plastic, thus they were still in their original foil packaging. At the same time, Nestlé stated it was upgrading the KitKat wrappers to 80 per cent recyclable plastic so that they could be recycled in Ireland or at supermarkets across the UK. Banning single-use plastics According to a study by the Veolia Institute, nearly half of all plastics used globally since 1950 have either been discarded in the environment or ended up in landfills. Only nine per cent of used plastic has been recycled effectively. According to UN figures, by 2050 there will be almost 12 billion tonnes of plastic garbage in landfills and the environment if current consumption trends and waste management techniques continue. Because, as per RSPCA, the issue with single-use plastic garbage is that it does not decompose, just fragments into smaller and smaller pieces, having long-term effects on the ecosystem and wildlife. In India , the use of plastic straws was outlawed in 2022 after the UK followed suit in 2020. In January, France outlawed the use of single-use plastics in restaurants that serve takeout food. In the Philippines, where masses of single-use plastics wash up on the coastlines, such packaging is reused by being stuffed inside bottles and stacked to create bricks for construction. Although the prohibition has not yet taken effect, the government announced a ban on single-use plastics in January, including plastic cutlery, plates, and polystyrene trays. Recently, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) government is also progressing to implement the next phase of its previously announced ban on single-use plastics across the ACT. Expanded polystyrene loose-fill containers, trays, and single-use plastic plates and bowls will all be prohibited in the ACT territory starting on 1 July 2023. With inputs from agencies Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram .