Mars, Incorporated

Global food, snacking and petcare packaging with agricultural and circular-materials exposure

Mars's 2025 Sustainable in a Generation reporting says 67.6% of consumer-facing packaging was designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable, excluding transport and tertiary components. Its packaging strategy is organized around elimination and reuse, redesign for circularity and investment to close the loop. Public reporting does not establish one SKU-level material passport, local collection outcome, recycled-content quality record and full cost-to-recovery result.

67.6% 2025 consumer-facing packaging designed for circularity

30% Stated recycled-content ambition across packaging

3 pillars Eliminate and reuse, redesign, close the loop

12,000+ Packaging components being redesigned or reviewed

• Flexible films, rigid plastics, paper, aluminum, inks, adhesives and food-safe recycled content
• Chocolate, food and petcare product specifications, shelf-life requirements and local collection conditions
• Packaging pilots, refill or reuse systems and post-consumer recovery data

Outputs and residuals to resolve

• Snacking, food and petcare products across multiple markets
• Consumer-facing packaging, transport packaging and post-use material streams
• Market-specific collection, sorting, food-safety and recycled-content evidence remain open

First decision: Choose one Mars format and one market. Compare the current pack with a qualified alternative across protection, shelf life, material weight, local recovery, recycled content and total system cost.

Mars reports 67.6% of consumer-facing packaging designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable in 2025, which does not by itself prove collection or recycling at market level.

Strategy

Mars organizes packaging work around elimination and reuse, redesign for circularity and closing the loop.

Material signal

Mars states an ambition to incorporate 30% recycled content across packaging.

Evidence boundary

A global design percentage does not establish local collection, sorting, food safety or end-of-life performance for one SKU.

Decision boundary

The public record supports one bounded next move: Choose one Mars format and one market. Compare the current pack with a qualified alternative across protection, shelf life, material weight, local recovery, recycled content and total system cost. It does not establish a buyer, commercial approval or supply agreement.

This is a public screening map. It separates company-disclosed flows from open qualification work. It does not convert a destination into a buyer or an announced ambition into operating capacity.

Make circularity local

Packaging only becomes circular inside a real market system with collection, sorting and buyers for the output.

Next evidence: Select format, market, collection route, sorter, recycler and recovered-content buyer.

Turn redesign into an apples-to-apples decision

The right pack balances product protection, material use, food safety and recovery, not one metric in isolation.

Next evidence: Compare current and alternative pack against performance, cost, weight and end of life.

Build a packaging evidence layer

A shared record can connect packaging component, specification, supplier, market and outcome across a large portfolio.

Next evidence: Select component, SKU, supplier, location, claim and verification record.

• 2025 Sustainable in a Generation Report Mars, official sustainability reporting https://www.mars.com/sustainability-plan/sustainability-report-progress
• Sustainable packaging Mars, official packaging strategy https://www.mars.com/sustainability-plan/healthy-planet/sustainable-packaging
• Sustainability reports Mars, official report library https://www.mars.com/sustainability-plan/sustainability-reports

Source hierarchy: filings and company disclosures first. The brief states what those sources support and leaves the unresolved plant, grade, permit, buyer and mass-balance questions explicit.

Mars has made packaging a material system, not a campaign line. Its 2025 report says 67.6% of consumer-facing packaging was designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable, while its packaging plan calls for eliminating unnecessary material, redesigning for circularity and closing the loop. The next useful unit is one format, one market and one real recovery pathway. The next useful working session starts with: Choose one Mars format and one market. Compare the current pack with a qualified alternative across protection, shelf life, material weight, local recovery, recycled content and total system cost.