Quality Street axes famous plastic wrappers on chocolates for recyclable paper

The change to the foil wrapping comes after 86 years in a bid to stop nearly two billion wrappers a year ending up in landfill.

The change is expected to be made in time for Christmas.

Although the famous colours will remain, popular favourites will come in bright wrapping which will instead be coated in a specially created vegetable-based coating designed to keep the sweets fresh.

Quality Street is set to axe its famous plastic wrappers on chocolates after 86 years.

Nine of the 11 Quality Street sweets will move to paper-based packaging, which most local authorities collect. The orange crunch and green triangle will remain in foil wrappers as, traditionally, they have not had a plastic layer.

The company said it hoped the changes would eliminate 3bn pieces of packaging a year from its supply chain.

Head of sustainability, Cheryl Allen, said: "Quality Street is a brand that people feel very strongly about.

"We know that opening the lid and seeing 'the jewels', as we call them, is really important.

"We think we've done a really good job with the redesign and feel confident that people will respond positively."

Nestlé, the owner of the popular Christmas treats, said it was also switching KitKat wrappers to 80% recycled plastic that could be recycled at supermarkets across the UK or put in household recycling in Ireland.

Smarties, also owned by Nestlé, introduced recyclable paper packaging last year in a bid to reduce waste.