Last October I reported on the uproar over the new SunChips compostable bag being too noisy. And I criticized Frito-Lay for giving up on the bag just because of a few complaints.
Well, a box arrived on my porch yesterday, courtesy of Frito Lay, with a fresh bag of chips in the new and improved, quieter SunChips compostable bag–2 times quieter than the old packaging, they claim. They also included one of the older, noisier bags for comparison.
On the new bag, both the outer print layer and the inner layer are made from PLA. The new secret ingredient is an adhesive glue layer that reduced the culprit–the loud crinkle sound of the old bag.
The marketing information claims the bag will still compost in about 14 weeks in a hot, active compost bin, about the same amount of time as an orange peel.
A Test: Old vs. New
The web site has a nice video clip comparing the new and old bags. When I did my own comparison, I was surprised by how loud and annoying the old bag really was. The new bag really is much quieter. Hopefully SunChips’ fans will be happier this time round and the compostable bag will be here to stay.
According to the company, the new bag will be in the market in about one month on specially marked bags of Original Flavor SunChips.
Got to give Frito Lay kudos was not giving up on the bag–a small step toward making your snacking pleasure greener without being crunchy.
Never Forget the Reality of Tradeoffs
The Green to Gold Playbook reminds us, “Remember that average consumers have multiple virtues in mind with each buying decision. Eco-designs fail if environmental gains come at an unacceptable cost in terms of other product attributes.”
