Zero Waste: Bio Plastics, Chip Bags and Compostability

A clip from an article in this months BioCycle*:

“The Sunchip’s 100 percent compostable bag made with Ingeo biopolymer was a packaging achievement. The bag was designed to fully compost in about 14 weeks in a hot, active composting pile. What from the outside appeared as a simple snack bag, was a complex multilayered structure that required barrier properties to keep moisture and oxygen out… the Sunchip’s bag ran up against a consumer issue- noise caused by the stiff material in a multilayer design.”

I was unaware of this, but Greenbiz points out that SunChip has redesigned the bags and is still using the compostable wrap on its Original chips. So while the noisiness is gone, the compostablility is still there! Keep an eye out for Target’s new in-house chip line “Archer Farms,” which uses the latest bioplastic technology to maximize freshness and suppress noise.

Compostable products are starting to become more prominent in the market, and as a full service, zero waste recycling company we are looking forward to seeing more compostable packaging options!

Do you still think the bags are too noisy? Let us know by replying to this post.

*Biocycle, August 2012, “Bioplastics Industry Report.”