Why has this never been done until now? Because in the USA, the recycling industry faces enormous challenges: everything from communications, understanding what can and can’t be recycled, different state laws, to expense, limited suppliers and mass scale production issues.

Our ambition was a huge undertaking. We had to build a new infrastructure, to push vendors to create new and better processes.

In addition, we know 80% of Americans want to decrease plastic waste but don’t know how. Yet over 90% of Americans are within 10 miles of a Store Drop-Off recycling location. That is a potential 295 million people who could participate in Store Drop-Off recycling. Only 5% of the U.S. population has access to compost. And only 9% of curbside recycling actually gets recycled.

Within this $7.3 billion dollar category, we recognize our unique position to drive change, not only in the industry, but the world around us.

We created a wrapper you can recycle. The iconic crinkle can now be returned, not tossed out.

We deliberately chose material development for in-store and curbside recyclable technologies. Our goal was creating a wrapper that was feasible to produce on a mass scale, have an impact on how our packaging is recycled, and ensure people knew how to recycle.

But is a granola bar wrapper kept out of landfills really a big deal? We think it is, when there are 9.8 million Nature Valley wrappers opened each day.

Once we had our technology and material, we did not patent it on purpose, so our methods may be adopted by more big brands.

It hasn’t been cheap. In fact, our new recyclable wrapper is more expensive to produce by 51%. But this transition was essential to living up to our name.

We had to build a new infrastructure, to push vendors to create new and better processes. It was incredibly challenging. For example, the early protypes were hard to open. We also had to prove to authorities that our new wrapper was in fact recyclable, without any impact on quality of the granola bar itself.

We set out on a mission to motivate just 1% of our consumers to drop their wrappers off in a bin, which would divert 1 million pounds of plastic waste out of landfills.

We did so by building a full plan to communicate the news of our recyclable wrapper, by inspiring consumers to show them what the wrapper can become if they recycle it.

We are also working with leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to create infrastructure for plastic film recycling, such as The Recycling Partnership and the Wrap Recycling Action Program (W.R.A.P.).

We worked with How2Recycle® Label - a coalition of forward-thinking brands who want their packaging to be recycled and are empowering consumers through smart packaging labels. We used a standardized labeling system that clearly communicates recycling instructions.

To help encourage Store Drop-Off recycling of Nature Valley wrappers, and other eligible plastics, the brand has created a multi-channel consumer education plan to drive awareness of Store Drop-Off recycling and promote small consumer actions that can lead to big impact in the world.

We asked people to join us on our journey to a more recyclable future. From industry PR coverage to our packaging, from inspiring and educational advertising to in-store display and reward programs, a full surround media plan and even a partnership with Zac Efron and The Home Edit - this showed how we solved a real problem for people to drive relevance for Nature Valley.

The ad world likes to award results a year out from a product launch, but we need to look farther into the future. We’re shifting pieces around that will set entirely new manufacturing processes into motion for multiple business types. This isn’t 1,000 biodegradable shampoo bottles; our implications have seven figures.

Our brand study showed excellent uplift stats against category competitors:

Nature Valley is trustworthy (+33.3%)

Nature Valley is sustainable (+25.2%)

Nature Valley is ethical (+29.3%)

We saw a 12% increase in ad-recall, and a 34% increase in preference for those that were exposed to Nature Valley Wrapper ads during March-May 2021.

Nature Valley’s trended brand desire grew significantly and above benchmark between January 2021 (11.8) and July 2021(14.9) – and is attributed to the Recyclable Wrapper.

The newly packaged bars are on shelves this spring and brings Nature Valley closer to achieving commitment to 100% recyclable packaging by 2025.