San Francisco Chronicle Online February 24, 2020
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) — A program to recycle energy bar wrappers is ending in a Wyoming town known for outdoor sports and elsewhere. After four years, a recycling center in Jackson will stop taking Clif Bar wrappers. Clif Bar offered the recycling since 2008 through a partnership with TerraCycle, a company specializing in hard-to-recycle materials. The company collected the wrappers to be melted down into hard plastic. It donated a penny per wrapper to the American Releaf Program, which plants trees in areas affected by wildfires, mining, development and other disruption. The program raised about $500,000 from wrappers collected at 14,500 locations, according to its website. The program required recycling workers in Jackson to sort through and throw out everything that wasn't a foil-lined energy bar wrapper, the Jackson Hole News & Guide reports. The center needed to collect 50 pounds (23 kilograms) of wrappers before shipping them. Clif Bar pledges on its website to create packaging that’s 100% “reusable, recyclable, or compostable” by 2025. The company did not respond to News & Guide requests for comment.