Sun Chips Bio-Bag a Bust

Too loud. Bummer.

As soon as I saw this thread title I thought “I bet it was too loud” I’ll admit it was kind of annoying. Everytime I would open the bag my cat would freak out, sounded like crumpling sheet metal.

Can’t say I’m surprised. I never thought to drift through the chip aisle and check those out. Maybe there’s still time…

I wonder what made it so loud? There must be a way to make a bio-degradable bag without being so “crispy”? I’m assuming it was something in the coating?

I cant imagine how annoying this would be in a classroom. You know there is always that idiot that thinks they can bring in chips and it wont bug anyone. This bag must have brought that to a whole new level.

took a bag of these on a family camping trip to a state park last month, and let’s just say I couldn’t eat them after 9pm. It would have woke the neighbors. That being said, kudos to them for blazing ground here. I wish more people would follow suit - the tech will catch up.

I was waiting to see how long it would take someone to post this. This is a great example of what happens when you design packaging without your consumers in mind. It was a great proposition, but these bags were being sent overseas to be converted and then back. The material was costing a fortune and there is no composting chain. Great intentions, but not all the pieces were there.

That made me laugh out loud at work, thankfully I was reaching in my bag of cracked pepper sun chips so no one was the wiser. :wink:

oops double post

It was the fact that it was a 100% PLA. Most of the time when PLA is used it is used as a lamination on another substrate. This then allows only part of the bag to degrade. This bag in theory would break down completely. The issue is that there is very few composting facilities around as it need high heat which your home composting pile will not provide.

So, sadly it seems this bag was simply “Greenwashed” anyway.

Yeah, but it was a step in the right direction. The first major CPG company that can do this (meaning sustainability) without disrupting the consumer will make a fortune.

Shows how much the public are willing to deal with in regards to saving the environment…
Using a bowl might be a good idea.

I can’t blame them as I am still waiting for a quantifiable definition of sustainable. Without a definitive benefit, it can easily be argued green is just a feel-good measure and a loud bag is easily more annoying than some ambiguous “good”.

all of this talk of special composting. does it really need to be composted or will it biodegrade in a landfill. if it will biodegrade completely in a landfill with out the consumer doing anything extra then i say its a huge step in the right direction. I just went to the convenience store to play with a bag, and the noise doesnt seem that horrible. they should have made an ad campaign embracing their loud bag, think harley davidson

The answer is no. It has to be in the proper disposal chain to break down. This is why I have an issue with these claim is because the public does not understand them and it is essentially “Greenwashing”. It is normal to think if it is biodegradable than it will just break down anywhere, but the bottom line is that is not the case and the manufacture does not make that know because they want you to buy it.

Is this the case for all packaging that bio degrades. Or the type of plastic they used?

The short answer is yes this is the case with all bio-plastics. For them to degrade they need to be tended which a standard landfill does not provide. Here is a link that explains it. Do Biodegradable Items Degrade in Landfills?

Well to the laymen it may be some ambiguous good. However to me a plastic bag that will never disappear as opposed to a compostable one is simply more then feel good.

As in this link “it will fully decompose in about 14 weeks when placed in a hot, active compost pile or bin, Frito-Lay says.”

The bag was simply never meant to travel to a landfill. Of course most people don’t have composts… but that leads to the design of a system which is something different altogether.

To quantify sustainability it’s something that can go on forever so.

By definition, without the layman embracing sustainability, it is only a feel-good exercise. 1 person is insignificant, 1 billion people can make a difference. Don’t get me wrong, it all starts with the individual, but there needs to be meaning for a lot of individuals to have impact. And again, without quantifing the outcomes, you will only have faith. While that works well with religion, it is an albatross for the green movement.