Getting corporations to join the fight against single-use plastics often takes more than a desire to help the environment. It also takes economic and marketing incentives. Food and drink giant Nestlé seems to have found a strategy for reducing plastic use and increase sales: paper packaging that doubles as an origami challenge. 

International food giant Nestlé has promised that by 2025 all its candy packaging will be 100% recyclable.  To help reach that goal, the company’s Japanese branch has launched a Kit Kit bar that ditches its glossy plastic packaging for single-layer paper wrappers which can be used to make origami creations. The updated packaging includes instructions for how to fashion it, post-snack, into the iconic origami crane, a traditional Japanese messenger of thoughts and wishes. 

Four million Kit Kats are sold daily in Japan, making this the most popular market for the candy brand, and this shift to paper packaging is expected to reduce single-use plastic by 380 tons a year.  Repurposing paper waste for new creative projects also encourages people to rethink their relationship with the waste they produce and develop a culture of reuse. Our only question is: when will Nestlé launch KitKats in the US that comes in paper wrappers that we can turn into art?