Last updated 05/09/2024: At Whittaker’s, our commitment to the ‘best’ goes beyond the ingredients we source and the chocolate we produce. We also want to do our best for the environment, by giving any waste from our factory in Porirua, a new life to minimise what we send to landfill.

Since 2019, we have been reviewing our waste streams to find a new home for materials we no longer have a need for. Follow our journey as we transform our waste streams to protect the environment for future generations.

30 tonnes of wooden pallets

How much we have diverted from landfill since May 2023

Wooden pallets are another focus for us as we work on minimising what we send to landfill. In mid-2023, we partnered with a clever company that collects our wooden pallets and takes them away to be de-nailed and turned into wood chips. The wood chips are then used in gardens.

Over 80 tonnes of factory food waste including cocoa bean sacks and husks

How much we diverted from landfill in the first year

In 2023, we partnered with Eco Stock, a South Auckland plant that works with manufacturers like us to repurpose factory food waste. Through this partnership, a portion of organic waste from our factory is turned into renewable energy products at New Zealand’s first large-scale food waste-to-bioenergy facility.

Our most recent waste reduction project has seen our empty cocoa bean sacks repurposed in the community. Thousands of cocoa sacks were used for hangi over the Matariki period, while others have been used for tree planting in local community gardens.