Opinion: Glow-In-The-Dark Packaging

With Halloween right around the corner, I wanted to write about glow-in-the-dark packaging. It wasn’t a topic I ever thought I would cover, especially since I had never even considered it before a specific chocolate brand introduced it to local grocery stores in 2024.

As I have written before: I love Halloween. Pumpkins, skeletons, black cats and bats, and a ghost or ghoul lurking around the corner. It’s fun, it’s low-stress, it’s spooky – what more could I ever ask for?

So, I almost feel like a bit of a traitor for the things I am about to write about glow-in-the-dark packaging. Sure, it’s fun. Sure, it’s spooky. But is it really what we need in 2025? Let’s talk about it.

An advert I received from the official Cadbury instagram page.

As a whole: I love glow-in-the-dark things, and you’ll find a reasonably good selection of jewellery made with glow-in-the-dark polymer clay across our shop. It’s a favourite for me to work with, and a favourite for you guys as well! You can’t really go wrong with something that’s glow-in-the-dark, especially when it’s reusable.

And I think that’s the core element in which the glow-in-the-dark packaging in question has its flaw.

It’s not reusable, not even in the slightest. It’s not even properly recyclable, now that soft-plastic recycling (or REDcycling) has largely ceased here in Australia. And sure, while there are slow attempts being made to (re)create similar sustainable programs, many are still not available to participate in Australia-wide.

Halloween is meant to be a fun time of the year, but it cannot be an excuse for lacking responsibility for the environment we need to protect.

There are far better, and environmentally safer, alternatives to synthetic cobwebs - but big corporations also need to be held accountable for the damage being done to our beautiful wildlife and the planet we all call home.

The same way that every day citizens are warned about fake cobwebs and the overconsumption of spooky costumes and decorations, huge businesses like Cadbury can – and should – be held accountable for contributing more and more plastic waste to landfill purely to increase their profits.

Cadbury’s glow-in-the-dark packaging doesn’t extend beyond a five-second thrill, before the chocolate is eaten and the package is discarded. There isn’t anything to do with it. It cannot be resealed. It isn’t likely to be repurposed outside of REDcycling alternatives. So, whatever time and resources have gone into making the plastic fun and glowy is essentially worthless in a matter of minutes.

And in 2025, that isn’t good enough.

If Cadbury wants to boost their sales for the spooky season, there are plenty of other ways to go about it, whether it be a limited-edition/seasonal flavour or even a new spooky chocolate mould, which can be reused in later years.

A business as significant and successful as Cadbury can absolutely afford to think ‘outside the square’ for the betterment of the environment – and they certainly won’t go belly-up for making an actual positive impact on the environment by changing their packaging.

Sustainability can no longer be a choice for huge corporations. Not for the sake of profits. Not for the sake of convenience. Not for the sake of Halloween.

What are your thoughts on glow-in-the-dark packaging? Should huge companies be held accountable for the impact their day-to-day packaging practices have on the environment? I would love to know your thoughts! Kimberley (they/them) Accessories by Antoinette