According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, Frito-Lay is pulling the biodegradable, compostable Sun Chips bag they recently debuted because people complained that it’s “too noisy”.
Yes—people took the time to make viral videos “poking fun” at the new bags and lodged “fierce complaints” on social-networking sites about the noisier packaging and in response to the complaints and a drop in sales, Frito-Lay decided to scrap, (for all but one flavor), the groundbreaking bag that used a polymer made from renewable plants rather than petroleum.
What does it say about Americans’ priorities that we are more concerned about the crinkly sound of a Sun Chips bag than keeping bags that will be here for hundreds of years out of the waste stream?
To be fair, the bags ARE noisy but not so much that it deters me from buying the product. In any case, there’s hope for noisy compostable snack bags, as evidenced by the quieter, more paper-like bag used by Boulder Canyon products which is made from wood pulp instead of corn starch.
In related news, I watched Trash Inc: The Secret Life of Garbage last night on CNBC. I recommend everyone watch it and see what happens to your trash after it leaves your curb.
Find It Here: The Wall Street Journal