Remember those Sun Chip commercials, featuring the new compostable bag? It was so hopeful, so uplifting, to think that even a mega-corporation like Frito Lay was trying to be greener, by giving consumers the opportunity to compost their bags.
I thought this was the beginning-- the end of throw away packaging, and the beginning of an era featuring corporate environmental responsibility, looking at products and their impact from creation to disposal.
Oh, was I wrong. I am an optimist, prone to fitful bouts of hope and warm fuzzies. At times, this serves me well, and other times, it is like being hit square in the face.
Last week, Frito Lay announced that they will retire the compostable bags because, "Customers complained. Groups on Facebook abound with names such as "I wanted SunChips but my roommate was sleeping..." and "Nothing is louder than a SunChips bag."
Spokeswoman Aurora Gonzalez said the company received complaints about the noise from the bags."
I found this move very disheartening. Thankfully, Frito Lay is developing a new line of biodegradable bags, but how hard would it have been to simply keep the compostable bags on the market until then? If people were truly composting the bags (which is not clear), then how much waste could be saved from landfills?
I know, eating chips from a bag isn't healthy, and I know, the bag was corn based, and there are all sorts of other issues with the overuse and subsidization of corn. But for me, those issues were secondary because many Americans will simply eat out of crinkly bags no matter what, and keep consuming obscene amounts of high fructose corn syrup (or its new, fake out, "natural" name, corn sugar).
We had a chance here, to turn the tide of massive throw away packaging of our food from a mega producer-- and we lost to some complaining, sneaky eaters who have nothing else to gripe about except a loud but compostable Sun Chip bag.
image: By anotherkindofdrew on Flickr Under Creative Commons
