Snacking sustainably - plastic-free sweets

Fruit and vegetables can now be bought unwrapped, but what about sweets? That's where it gets more difficult... Whether it's biscuits with coffee, gummy bears on the go or chocolate in front of the TV - we'll show you how you can enjoy snacking without plastic. :-)

numbers, data, facts

In Germany, more than 38 kilograms of plastic waste are generated per capita every year. Over 30 percent of the plastic produced is used for packaging.
It is estimated that more than 90% of all sweets are wrapped in plastic. Candies, biscuits and gummy bears sometimes even double and triple.

After all, there is already the possibility to buy sweets unpackaged. Unpackaged shops and confectionaries are great in this respect! Chocolate, coated nuts, gummy bears, sweets & Co. can easily be bought in their own container.

Plastic packaging is also avoided in bakeries and confectioneries and paper/cardboard is used instead. Did you know that sweets can also be bottled at Ikea? This also brings back fond memories of colorful bags from childhood. :-)

The average chocolate consumption of Germans in 2018 was 8.7 kg per person. Pretty much, isn't it? If we convert that to 100g bars, that was 87 chocolate bars per person per year and correspondingly 87 packaging that ended up in the garbage.
If sweets were bought in the unpacked shop in the future, perhaps only a handful of large packs would be made from these 87 plastic packs.

What alternatives are there?

In order to save on packaging in general, sweets can be bought in bulk packaging, for example. Gummy bears, for example, come in large cans, which are often made of plastic, but have more content and can be reused. Another tip is candy outlets. There are big boxes full of sweets, which saves a lot of packaging waste. Broken chocolate and B-goods get a new chance here and don't have to be thrown away. With bulk packs, you can not only save waste, but also money. Besides, that's a dream come true for every night cat, isn't it?

Of course, there is another great way to get unpackaged sweets: make them yourself!

Plus, you'll know exactly what's in there.

Muffins and cakes are the classics, but chocolate fruits are also easy to make. Dip strawberries, bananas & Co. in chocolate, let dry and enjoy!

But here are some more tempting recipes:

1. DIY chocolate crossies

You need:

200g chocolate of your choice

120g of corn flakes

Or: 60 g cornflakes / 60 g almond slivers

Here's how:

Melt the chocolate in a water bath and carefully mix with the cornflakes (and slivers of almonds).

Form small mounds of the mixture onto a baking sheet, let cool and enjoy! Easy right?

While chocolate, biscuits or nuts are often found in paper packaging or cans, gummy bears are usually only sold in plastic packaging.

So here is a delicious recipe on how you can make vegan gummy bears yourself.

2. DIY Vegan Gummy Bears:

You need:

1 packet of AgarAgar (20-30 g)

400 ml fruit juice of your choice (e.g. cherry)

Sweetener of your choice (e.g. agave syrup, maple syrup, erythritol)

Small ice cube molds

That's how it's done:

Bring the mixture of fruit juice and agar-agar to the boil. Adjust the sweetness to taste with a sweetener. Then pour the mixture into the molds and place in the freezer for half an hour. After that, the gummy bears are ready and will keep for several weeks if they are not snacked on beforehand.

3. DIY Vegan Cookies:

You need:

250 g flour

½ packet baking powder

80 grams of sugar

1 packet of vanilla sugar

150 g vegetable margarine

2 tbsp applesauce

150 g dark chocolate drops

That's how it's done:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees circulating air. Mix flour and baking powder together. Add the sugar, vanilla sugar, margarine and applesauce and knead into a dough. Then mix in the chocolate chips. Form small balls from the dough and place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Leave enough space between the balls and bake in the oven for about 12 minutes. Then let it cool for 10 minutes and enjoy!

We firmly believe: homemade sweets are plastic-free, save money and taste great! Sweets in larger packaging not only reduce our packaging waste, but are also much cheaper. Bakeries, confectioneries and bulk shops already offer great opportunities to get sweet treats in an environmentally friendly and sustainable way.

With this in mind: Happy snacking! :-)

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