Have you heard the most recent news about Sun Chips’ compostable bags? Probably not… if you’ve been munching from one of those bags. The new 100 percent biodegradable bags are so loud that people are starting to make a fuss. If you haven’t grabbed one yet, consider the crunchy sound of a standard plastic chip bag and amplify that by about 100… we’re just sayin’.
“It is louder than the cockpit of my jet,” said Air Force pilot Scot Heathman. He also created an entire video (below) called “Potato Chip Technology That Destroys Your Hearing” during which he measured the decibel level of the crackling bag. It came in at 95 decibels, almost 20 decibels higher than a standard chip bag.
[Skip to 2:19 (ish) to hear the sound of the bag]
It’s not just Heathman who thinks the loudness of Sun Chips’ new bags is ridiculous–a Facebook Group called “SORRY BUT I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THIS SUN CHIPS BAG” has 33,666 fans, as of yesterday. And, according to the Wall Street Journal, when 4th-grader McKenzie Kuhn opened the bag of Sun Chips she had brought to her class’s end-of-the-year party, not only did her classmates look her way, her teacher said, “Please try to open your bag quieter, Mackenzie.”
Brad Rodgers, Frito-Lay’s North American manager of sustainable packaging, explains that the bags, which are now made of plant-based polylactic acid, rather than the original polymers polypropylene and polyethylene, have a higher “glass transition temperature,” the point where polymer goes from a relatively hard, glass-like state to a rubber state. As a result of the transition occurring above room temperature, the plant-based bag becomes “crispy and crunchy,” says Rodgers.
Frito-Lay has tried to embrace the crunch and crackle of its bags, even going so far as to place signs in retailers stating, “Yes, the bag is loud, that’s what change sounds like.” But, as it turns out, Rodgers is currently working on creating an eco-friendly, degradable bag that doesn’t announce to all bystanders, “CRUUUNCH!” when you’re trying to eat your chips in peace.
[Via/Photo Via: The Wall Street Journal]
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