New Delhi (NVI): You may have heard about many eco-friendly items but are you aware of eco-friendly chocolates?
Chennai-based ‘Cocoatrait’ is the company that says it produces eco-friendly chocolates with 100% up-cycled paper and plastic-free outer packaging.
“We have not taken anything away from the planet earth for packaging. Further, our chocolate volume/size is optimised for reducing the transportation volume and reduce carbon footprint,” says L Nitin Chordia, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of the company.
“We use an up-cycled paper-free, plastic-free, tree-free, compostable, bio-degradable and recyclable wrapping material which is made using reclaimed cotton and our wasted cocoa husk. This material is eco-friendly and we follow the circular economy model where we take very little away from the earth and give back to the soil when the use of the product is over,” he told NVI.
A study conducted by researchers at the University of Manchester in UK in 2018 had shown that the chocolate industry produces tonnes of greenhouse gases in a year.
As the production of chocolate requires raw materials such as cocoa powder, milk, sugar and energy including heating, cooling, and transport which produces tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year across the world.
“Around 500 sheets of A4 size non-recycled paper use 6 percent of an average size tree. We have saved 1/3rd a tree,” Cocoatrait says.
“Each tree removes 3 kgs of Carbon Dioxide emissions per year from the air. So far, the company has removed around 1 kg of carbon dioxide emissions from the air,” it added.
Chordia said India should have a good balance of brands that are local and international. “This way we create value in India and the value is consumed in India. This will hopefully help us import lesser chocolate. The way I look at it is that, for each chocolate bar of mine, the consumer has potentially purchased 1 lesser imported chocolate bar,” he said.
