Frito Lay Canada is first with 100% compostable SunChips bag
Marketed as “The new sound of green,” the SunChips 100% compostable flexible snack bag will begin appearing on Canadian retail shelves in March.
Pre-empting a publicized U.S. Earth Day launch, Frito Lay Canada (a division of PepsiCo) has announced that it will start stocking shelves with the new 100% compostable SunChips bag in March. The flexible packaging will be made from more than 90% renewable, plant-based materials and will completely break down into compost in a hot, active compost pile in approximately 14 weeks, according to the company.
"In order to continue to reduce our environmental impact as a company, finding sustainable packaging solutions was a must," says Marc Guay, president, Frito Lay Canada. "We know that environmentally-friendly packaging is a priority for Canadians. Using plant-based renewable materials to make packaging that will interact differently with the environment represents the next small step in Frito Lay Canada's environmental sustainability journey."
The renewable material used to produce the SunChips 100% compostable bag is made from a plant-based PLA material. After four years of research and testing, Frito-Lay North America's Research and Development team identified PLA as the key material that meets the company's performance expectations. PLA ensures the product in the bag maintains the quality and freshness Canadian consumers expect, the company says.
The compostable packaging has a different sound than traditional bags because the plant-based materials are not as soft at room temperature. Thus, the company is calling its 100% compostable packaging “The new sound of green.”
Frito Lay to encourage composting initiatives
The SunChips' compostable packaging has been certified through the Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), which means that it can be incorporated into waste management programs destined for composting, provided the local infrastructure is both available and capable of including this packaging material within their system. In the months ahead, SunChips will be working with local composting initiatives to enable the new packaging to be included in green bin programs as much as possible.
"Having designed packaging with the environment in mind, SunChips' certified compostable packaging will help raise awareness of the environmental importance of composting," says Susan Antler, executive director of the Compost Council of Canada. "We hope the introduction of initiatives such as the compostable SunChips bag will encourage and make it easier for Canadians to participate in composting such that over time, we will see an increase in the number of Canadian households that compost. This will hopefully also spur the industry to continue to develop and enhance the technology needed to create packaging from renewable resources such that it can be easily incorporated into waste management systems."
The SunChips 100% compostable chip bag will start appearing on shelves in Canada in March in 225- and 425-g bags, with the balance of SunChips packages transitioning into the compostable packaging in August 2010.
"As we embark on a new decade, environmental initiatives are more important than ever," says Tony Matta, vice president of marketing, Frito Lay Canada. "Every step counts as we strive to shrink our footprint on the planet, and the SunChips 100% compostable chip bag is one small step towards a greener future."
Frito Lay Canada’s environmental achievements
Frito Lay Canada reports that has been working to reduce the company's environmental impact for more than a decade. In addition to the SunChips 100% compostable chip bag, Frito Lay Canada has:
• Reduced its manufacturing fuel consumption by more than 20% since 1999 per kilogram of snacks produced.
• Reduced its water consumption by 30% since 1999, saving 5.4 billion liters of water through changes in the manufacturing plants.
• Diverted more than 92% of manufacturing waste from landfills into reuse streams in 2009.
• Reused approximately 30 million shipping cartons annually and 200 million since 1999, which is equivalent to more than 300,000 trees saved annually and more than 2 million trees saved since 1999.
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We did some research to find out how many Commercial Composts were available across the U.S. to take PLA. Over several weeks, looking into every state, we found 88 facilities in the entire U.S.A.. There are over 33,000 communities in the U.S. so that means only 1/4 of 1 % of all communities have the ability to dispose of PLA in a Commercial Compost. By their own admission, it must be a HOT environment with regular aeration and rich in microbial activity. This eliminates Home composts, Landfills or anywhere else leaving 99.75% of the U.S. with nowhere to discard PLA. The FTC guidelines against Greenwashing state that a product claim must be available in at least 60% of communities to be valid. PLA is at 1/4 of 1 %.
So what is the point in making a bag that is virtually doomed to eternity in a landfill and claiming some astounding achievement. By the way, the ad on TV showed the bag buried in the earth ( no indication it had to be in a commercial compost ) and it miraculously grows a flower in a few weeks. That is Greenwashing Galore. I am sure Frito Lay is doing many other great things for the environment but this is not one of them.
Compostable and biodegradable are not synonymous. What about the other 10% of this bag? It looks like mylar and it just breaks down into tiny pieces, that isn't compostable. I agree with RPocius what a farce and greenwash sell to go after the green market. Now Frito Lay needs to build the infrastructure to handle yet another blight on the planet.
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