Sustainability targets are intended to define a direction of travel. Yet when their deadline arrives, the results do not always correspond to the level of ambition initially established.
Mars’ latest packaging figures provide a useful example. The company increased the amount of recycled material used across its plastic portfolio in 2025, while remaining below a previously stated recycled content target for the same year. Both elements are part of the same story: measurable progress was made, but the original objective was not reached.
Rather than reducing the outcome to either success or failure, the figures offer a broader opportunity to examine how packaging commitments translate into industrial results.
Recycled content reached 9.2% of Mars’ plastic portfolio
According to its 2025 sustainability reporting, Mars incorporated 18,721 metric tonnes of recycled plastic, bringing recycled content to 9.2% of its reported global plastic portfolio. In 2024, the corresponding share was 7%, with more than 14,000 metric tonnes incorporated, while in 2023 recycled content accounted for 1.5%. The figures therefore show a clear upward trajectory over the three-year period.
Mars also reported a 5.9% reduction in virgin plastic use compared with its 2019 baseline. In addition, 67.6% of its consumer-facing packaging was designed to be reusable, recyclable or compostable. The latter figure excludes transport packaging and tertiary components.
These indicators measure different aspects of packaging circularity and should not be treated as interchangeable. A package designed for recycling does not necessarily contain recycled material, just as the incorporation of recycled content does not guarantee that the package will be collected and recycled after use.
Together, however, the figures provide a more complete view of the company’s packaging transition than any single percentage could offer.
The earlier target was 30% recycled content by 2025
The necessary context is that Mars had previously established a target of reaching an average of 30% post-consumer recycled content in its plastic packaging by 2025. The objective was communicated through the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Global Commitment, which Mars joined in 2018.
The reported result of 9.2% therefore did not match the earlier 30% objective. The difference is 20.8 percentage points.
Stating this does not negate the increase achieved between 2023 and 2025. Equally, highlighting the increase should not obscure the fact that the target was not reached. Progress and target achievement are two separate measurements: one describes movement from a baseline, while the other compares the final result with a predetermined destination.
For transparent sustainability reporting, both need to remain visible.
Why packaging results can diverge from corporate targets
Packaging targets are often established several years before their deadline. They are consequently based on assumptions about future material availability, technological development, regulatory conditions and recycling infrastructure.
Mars states that packaging circularity depends not only on redesigning individual formats but also on the availability of collection, sorting and recycling systems at sufficient scale. The company also identifies access to food-safe recycled materials as a factor influencing the pace at which recycled content can be introduced across different markets.
This distinction is particularly relevant for companies operating extensively in food, confectionery and pet food. Packaging in these sectors must meet product protection, shelf-life and food-contact requirements, while many product categories continue to depend on flexible or multilayer structures that are difficult to replace at scale.
System-level constraints provide important context for understanding the results, although they do not change the original target or the final percentage. Their role is explanatory rather than exonerating: they help show why implementation may develop differently from the pathway anticipated when an objective was first announced.
Packaging targets are becoming tests of real-world scalability
The Mars figures illustrate a wider challenge for the packaging industry. Pilot projects, material trials and individual format conversions can demonstrate that a solution is technically possible. Reaching a portfolio-wide target requires something more: reliable material supply, consistent quality, regulatory acceptance, manufacturing compatibility and functioning end-of-life systems across multiple markets.
This is where ambitious commitments encounter the realities of scale.
The lesson is not that companies should avoid setting ambitious targets. Without measurable objectives, it becomes difficult to evaluate progress or establish accountability. The lesson is instead that targets should be accompanied by clear baselines, defined reporting boundaries and regular updates explaining whether implementation remains on track.
When the final result differs from the original ambition, the gap itself becomes useful information. It can reveal where infrastructure has developed more slowly than expected, where materials remain difficult to source and where packaging design alone cannot deliver circularity.
From ambition to measurable packaging progress
Mars’ 2025 results can therefore be read without either celebrating or condemning them. Recycled content increased to 9.2%, virgin plastic use declined against the company’s 2019 baseline, and more than two-thirds of consumer-facing packaging was reported as designed for reuse, recycling or composting. At the same time, the previously stated 30% recycled content target was not achieved.
These facts are not contradictory. They describe the difference between making progress and reaching a destination.
As more corporate packaging deadlines expire, the industry will increasingly be judged not only by the ambition of its commitments, but by the quality and transparency of the comparison between what was promised, what was delivered and what prevented the two from fully aligning.
