Unwrapping the Truth About Candy Bar Wrappers

Let’s talk about candy bar wrappers.

They seem harmless enough—lightweight, shiny, colorful. They delight the eyes before the first bite and vanish into your pocket, your trash bin… or, more often than we’d like to admit, out the car door or through a park on a windy day. And that’s where the real trouble starts.

The Hidden Complexity of a Tiny Wrapper

Candy wrappers aren’t just “plastic.” They’re a sophisticated sandwich of three distinct layers:

1. A white or silver inner layer that protects the candy.

2. A printed middle layer with all the branding and marketing.

3. A clear outer layer that keeps the ink from rubbing off.

This layering makes sense for preserving flavor and shelf life. But when it comes to recycling? It’s a nightmare. Even if one of those layers is recyclable, how would a recycling facility ever justify the time and cost of separating microscopic pieces of wrapper?Spoiler alert: they won’t.

So, What Are Companies Doing?

Some companies, including Mars (makers of M&M’s, Snickers, and more), are trying to develop wrappers where all three layers are recyclable. That’s encouraging. But when I had coffee with Mars' sustainability officer a few years back in Washington, DC, I asked a bigger question:Even if we make them recyclable—what then?

These wrappers are feather-light. They float out of pockets, slip through sidewalk cracks, blow out of trash bins, and get swept into rivers, lakes, and oceans. They’re virtually designed to escape the waste system and infiltrate ecosystems.

So we have to ask a bigger question—not can we recycle them, but should we be making them like this in the first place?

What Did We Do Before Plastic?

When I asked the Mars representative what was used before these multi-layered plastic marvels, she replied:“Wax paper.”

Wax paper is a simple, compostable solution—especially for local goods that are eaten quickly. But in today’s global economy, where candy bars are shipped across oceans and stored for months, plastic packaging often becomes necessary to keep food safe.

I’m not against food safety. I’m asking: can we redesign our systems so we don’t have to rely on this kind of packaging in the first place?

The Problem Beneath the Wrapper

Canadian researcher Dr. Max Liboiron (whose work I highly recommend) explains how different companies use proprietary plastic “recipes” that aren’t compatible with one another. Coca-Cola’s bottles can’t be recycled into Pepsi’s. Nestlé can’t easily use post-consumer Coke plastic. The result? Recycling becomes a deeply inefficient patchwork.

Dr. Liboiron’s insights helped me name something I’ve felt for years: the plastics industry grew through trial and error, and now we’re stuck trying to fix its problems on the back end. That’s not working anymore.

A Bold Vision: Producer Responsibility

I hold a bold vision—and maybe it's time to speak it clearly:Companies should take back their own packaging.

Imagine a policy where manufacturers were required to manage the waste their products create. Suddenly, they’d have a powerful incentive to redesign packaging: make it circular, reusable, refillable, or compostable. If they knew they’d be dealing with it later, they’d design differently now.

It’s not anti-business—it’s pro-future.

Is Recycling Still Worth It?

People ask me:If recycling isn’t solving the problem, should I stop doing it?No.I still recycle.But I no longer pretend it’s enough.

Recycling is like putting a band-aid on a broken system. It's not a solution, it's a stopgap. The real work lies in redesigning how we make, use, and dispose of materials—starting with something as small (and symbolic) as a candy wrapper.

Where We Go From Here

If this sounds a little heavy, it’s because it is. But hopeless? Not at all.

This is the moment to rethink, redesign, and reclaim our relationship with packaging—and with the companies who make it. The world doesn’t need more recyclable wrappers. It needs a new wrapper story altogether.

So next time you unwrap a sweet treat, ask yourself:What if this wrapper had to come home?And what if the company that made it had to take it back?

Want to know what you can do right now? Stay tuned for my upcoming guide to smarter packaging choices and real-world solutions that go beyond the bin.