SunChips bag is 33% PLA
Frito-Lay’s popular line of SunChips multigrain snack chips has been launched in a new bag with an outer layer made from Ingeo polylactic acid (PLA) resin from NatureWorks LLC (www.natureworksllc.com). The Purchase, NY-based company says the launch of the 10.5-oz multilayer bag is the first step toward transforming the brand’s packaging to a fully compostable bag. By Earth Day 2010, PepsiCo's Frito-Lay North America division plans to roll out a package for its SunChips snacks where all layers are made from PLA material, making the package 100% compostable.
“We know environmentally friendly packaging is a priority for our SunChips consumer,” says Gannon Jones, vice president of marketing for Frito-Lay North America. “Today’s launch of packaging made with one-third renewable materials is an important first step toward having a fully compostable chip bag in market by Earth Day 2010.”
Current snack food packaging has three layers: a printed outer layer with packaging visuals/graphics, an inner layer, which serves as a barrier to maintain the quality and integrity of the product, and a middle layer that joins the other two layers. When the packaging is 100% compostable, it will fully decompose in about 14 weeks when placed in a hot, active compost pile or bin, Frito-Lay says.
“Packaging is clearly the most visible interaction consumers have with Frito-Lay’s brands,” says Jay Gehring, vice president of packaging R&D, Frito-Lay North America. “To make packaging that would interact differently in the environment, we had to change the composition of packaging and invent key technologies. Using plant-based renewable materials, we have a promising solution that will transform packaging and significantly impact the billions of snack food bags produced annually.”
Once the 100% compostable bag is introduced, the company anticipates the switch will lead to reduced greenhouse gas emissions in the production of the packaging and the elimination of petroleum-based packaging material.
To inform consumers about the new packaging initiatives, the brand will be communicating through traditional marketing efforts, including print, TV, and digital advertising. As part of the current packaging change, the front panel of the current 10.5-oz SunChips package features a callout, “Renewable materials make up 33% of this bag.” To communicate the next improvement, the digital strategy includes a video showing how the bag decomposes over 14 weeks.
Recent sustainability improvements
Over the past few years, Frito-Lay’s packaging initiatives have made some significant strides, the company notes. This includes reducing the amount of plastic in packaging by 10% over the last five years, resulting in the elimination of 12 million pounds of materials annually used to make the snack bags. In addition, Frito-Lay will be the first snack food company to fund the collection and upcycling of its used packaging through a program in conjunction with TerraCycle, Inc. (www.terracycle.net).
On Earth Day 2008, the SunChips brand celebrated a major milestone by inaugurating a solar concentrator field at Frito-Lay’s Modesto, CA, facility. There, the power of the sun is harnessed to help in the production of SunChips snacks. The Modesto plant is one of seven Frito-Lay plants across the country that makes SunChips snacks.
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Frito-Lay has done a great job positioning an entire brand (Sun Chips) so sustainability is in its DNA. They started with the Sun Chips are made with sun concept (using solar energy to heat the oil) and have progressed down into the materials the packaging are using.
An interesting side note though is the very focused approach on creating a 100% compostable bag. Personally I think they should have made bigger news of 1/3 of the bag is now made of renewable materials, reduced the amount of petroleum based products, and the positive environmental impact that has (if you look at NatureWorks LLC's latest eco-profile PLA is significantly less burdensome to manufacture than most traditional polymers). It would talk about what happened now rather than focusing on a goal a year from now that may or may not have the intended impact. There are limited number of commercial composting facilities that can and will take packaging, especially if that package isn't the norm (which in the salty snacks world this would be the exception rather than the norm). Setting up composting facilities to take foodstuffs and this type of material typically are heavily regulated and I don't expect an explosion of availability.
Congrats again to Frito-Lay and NatureWorks LLC, this is definitely a step in the right direction.
Congratulations to Frito Lay for taking a leadership position in switching to renewable materials. I suspect there will be those who disagree with their strategy... but Frito has taken a deliberate and strategic step to address a growing number of sustainability concerns that plague the food industry and is doing so quite masterfully. They may not get it 100% right on the first attempt, but I am quite certain they will hone their execution and get it pretty close to ideal in the long term. BTW – I was recently given a 100% compostable bag as a promotion at Wal-Mart. Great job on building the buzz while you work out final commercialization details. Keep up the good work.
Once again PLA is substituted for a middle layer between outer non-compostable materials. This renders it useless for a commercial compost or any other type of green disposal. Since there are so few commercial composts and PLA does not work in a backyard compost, most of these bags will not degrade at all even when they are 100% PLA.
There are alternatives, such as TekPakSolutions Bio-films. These are Metallized Biodegradable films that degrade in a backyard compost, landfill, lake, river or ocean with no restrictions. They are 100% degradable and are sealable and printable.
Oxo-Bio has many conditions for degradation, such as the requirement of 6 hours of direct sunlight in order to initiate the process. Usually not mentioned.
It is encouraging to see industry leaders making the investment to begin to include bio-resins in their packaging portfolio. It is a step in the right direction. Leadership requires responsibility and education. PLA, less GHG emission when processing compared to traditional petroleum base plastic, OK. Total carbon footprint? And the material needs to be industrially composted. The general public hasn't a clue what that means. Industry standards are being re-considered, hopefully updated to reflect what makes sense for everyone. In the meantime bio-resins are an honor system, full disclosure should be warranted. Can't wait to see the video.
I think the dialogue thread is great. Gets people thinking. The Sun Chips bag is not "PLA" in the middle. Actually the outer film is "PLA" better known in the trade as Ingeo(tm) from NatureWorks LLC. Frito-Lay is on track for 2010. Packaging like this helps to re-enforce in the industry that there is a need for composting infrastructure as a diversion from landfill. If work like this did not exist then composting will never grow at the rate needed for it to be used effectively as landfill diversion. Keep in mind composting is actually a set of conditions, not a location. If you can meet the conditions as outlined in the ASTM D6400 standard for composting, then the Sun Chips bag will compost in your home compost. Agree that taking advantage of the renewable and lower environmental footprint is key as well.
33% PLA in Chip bags is not an answer, it's just a marketing gimmick. Gimmicks just trick people into believing something is good when there are better products on the market (like Tek Pak film).......why not do the research and show the facts rather than promote fiction?????????
The Sunchips bag will NOT home compost. It has to achieve higher heat than what is accomplished in the yard, therefore, it needs an industrial composter. There is not one any where near where I live. That means it would be thrown into the landfill where it will NOT compost. Try again.
All -
Great conversation around this topic. I think it is particularly relevant because this is part of the conversation that comes up frequently. I think there are a couple of points to remember.
1. This is progress in the right direction. The new package is more sustainable than the old one.
2. Renewable content/renewable based polymers have other advantages than just being compostable (in fact not all of them are). They derive from renewable resources and lessen our reliance and burden upon petroleum.
3. In Ingeo(TM)'s case, at least the most recent data I have seen from NatureWorks, the creation of PLA actually uses less energy, creates less GHG, and requires less water than the manufacture of most petroleum based resins.
4. There is much more to sustainable packaging than just end of life.
5. Oxo-degradables have their own issues, challenges, and short-comings. As of yet I have not seen a full LCA or Eco-Profile or degradation standards and third party data verification of oxo-degradables. I'm not saying they don't work, I'm just saying that none of that information has either been completed or made publicly available. NAPCOR has asked for similar information, I have asked for this information, and I know several other large CPG companies have asked for it and nobody has recieved it.
6. This is Step 1 in the process for Frito-Lay. They have announced the desire to get to a 100% compostable bag in the future (I believe 2010 was the year).
7. ASTM D6400, as Brian said, is a list of conditions. Currently backyard composting does not meet the temperature requirements, so we frequently call all places that can reach those conditions "commercial composting." As Brian alluded, if you could find a way to hit those conditions in your backyard, you could compost these. Even better yet, why can't this lead to a new piece of equipment innovation for backyard composters that can reach these conditions, manage any odors, and have useful products come out?
8. There isn't a silver bullet for sustainable packaging. Ingeo(TM) PLA will be the best solution in some cases, other technologies will be a better fit elsewhere. This is a complex issue that will have multiple solutions.
I hope this helps....
Adam
Adam's thoughts are very reasonable on this subject but everyone is overlooking the consequences of mass producing corn or sugar cane to make PLA. In the U.S., corn producers are increasing the Pesticide and Fertilizer run off into rivers and eventually the oceans. The Mississippi delta flows into the Gulf of Mexico and has left a 10,000 square mile area of Dead Water. It has insufficient oxygen to sustain any life. No fish or anything else. This problem is growing every year.
Rain forests are being burned down which equal the size of Greece each year to plant these crops for ethanol and PLA. the smoke from the fires creates more Carbon Monoxide than all the cars of the world. The loss of CO2 absorption by all those trees is another growing problem.
90% of all new medicines come from the Rain Forests. Soon they will be gone.
Third world countries are using much of their farmland to produce Corn for ethanol and PLA production. This has contributed to a 67 % increase in deaths of children due to malnutrition related diseases in the last 4 years. Many dictators force the farmers to produce corn for Ethanol and PLA production rather than feed their own people.
How many negatives does it take to get the message ?
Again, good discussion. I recommend that you look at the corn growing statistics for the US. The corn used today is US grown and all eco profiles etc include corn farming practices. Keep in mind that for a total of 300 million pounds of the Ingeo resin, there is only a need for less than 0.15% of the US corn crop. In the US each year there is more corn disposed of at the end of the season as excess corn than what is needed for Ingeo production. That said, keep in mind sugars from corn are short term, the long term is biomass.
It is a Marketing gimmick - but it is progress in the right direction & does get people thinking.
Sorry, but the new package is not more sustainable than the old one - it all depends on what you call sustainability - the hydrocarbons used in the corn (Fuel, fertilizer...) and all of the water needed to grow the corn push the balance the wrong way. It doesn't matter that it only uses 0.15% of the corn crop - this is just misdirection.
You really want a more susainable bag? You could reduce the number of layers (Use a metallized seal layer) reduce the thickness of the layers - the standard 48ga is slowly being replaced by 37ga, but these options could not be hyped up as much as "It's going to be 100% compostable"
I do give Frito kudos for trying to change the way we look at packaging - it's a great start.
I have been trying to figure out the Cradle to the Grave study on PLA vs a PE or PP film. PLA requires A LOT of energy to produce - Energy = greenhouse gases. While the production of the resin - which is just turning corn materials into a plastic resin uses less total energy than turning a monomer into a resin - it takes a lot more to get the plant material to the plant, and even more to farm the plant. Also PLA resin and finished product can not be stored in high heat - meaning a normal trailer that can reach well over 120F during a sunny day will need to be chilled, as well as the warehouses that the finished product is stored in. Most of the corn produced in the US is also done in states that burn coal for energy, meaning lots of dirty emissions and CO2 to power the effort, (clean burning coal seems to be an oxymoron to me). The cost difference is also extremely higher - at least twice the cost for PLA as for PP and even more for PE and PS. I would rather see that extra money spent on nuclear and hydroelectric facilities that would help ease the burden on the emissions created by producing these resins. Or more importantly have the money spent on schools so that our children will be smart enough to tackle these problems and not be so susceptible to marketing gimmicks without doing further research into the matter, we have become accustomed to believing what we see on TV that we should start to read some more, and perhaps think for ourselves.
I agree, step in the right direction, but from a sustainability perspective, I think they need to be more clear on what features lessen the impact to the environment and point out what features/materials do not... (ie: the al used for the protective barrier is not being recovered. Not much different when disposed of in a landfill, but I think it should be pointed out... http://www.sunchips.com/resources/pdf/SunChips_BehindtheScenes.pdf).
Kroger did a really good job with one of their cottage cheese packages that they converted to lessen the environmental impact... but they did an excellent job of explaining why.
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