The SunChips brand today officially introduces what it says is the world’s first 100% compostable chip bag.
The new bags are made with plant-based polylactic acid (PLA), a renewable material that also allows the bags to fully compost in approximately 14 weeks when placed in a hot, active compost bin. The bags will be at full distribution in North America in time for the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22.
SunChips are made by PepsiCo’s (NYSE: PEP) Frito-Lay division.
As a part of this introduction, SunChips is launching a national composting education initiative via strategic alliances with the U.S. Composting Council and Earth 911 to promote composting through educational materials, consumer outreach and other awareness-building activities. The goal is to reach more than one million American households directly through this effort.
However, it should be noted that these bags cannot be composted in the average household composting bin. Compostable plastics only breakdown under the hot conditions created by large commercial composting operations. The US is still woefully behind in the development of commercial composting, and many commercial operations do not accept compostable plastics, because they do not match the shorter composting cycles for yard waste, food waste and other typical organic materials.
Furthermore, from a waste perspective, compostable bags are little different than other plastic bags when buried in a landfill. Under those anaerobic conditions they take years to break down, and when they do, they release the potent greenhouse gas methane, rather than the carbon dioxide released from composting.
Only a limited number of composting facilities in the US are processing compostable bags, making their commercial use less significant for waste reduction. But the hope is that commercial composting will scale up significantly in the near term.
SunChips worked with Wood’s End, an independent laboratory, to evaluate the performance and certify the compostability of the packaging. Additionally, the bag received third-party certification from the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI).
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