Saturday, May 16, 2009

Exciting News From Sun Chips

A lot of things make Mom crazy. It's true. She has a hard time buying food items that contain too much packaging because she knows that the packaging will end up in a landfill forever. Even if some packaging can be recycled she still feels guilty buying a product because so much energy was used to create the packaging. When I told Mom about the steps that they Sun Chips people were taking to create more responsible packaging, she kissed me all over!

The people at Sun Chips realized that they had to address the impact their packaging has on the Earth. Packaging accounts for most of the waste thrown away in everyone's garbage. This packaging goes from your garbage to the landfill, where it will never decompose. Mom is always telling me that we need enzymes that can break down all the packaging, but that enzymes haven't yet evolved to break down the sophisticated packaging we have created. Huh? It all seems very complicated to me because I am not a scientist, but the basic idea is that packaging lives forever. And that's a problem.

Knowing that they had to change their ways, the people at Sun Chips turned to nature. The result is that 33% of every 10.5 oz bag is made with renewable plant based materials. Yeah! Mom can feel less guilty if she buys them. I don't eat Sun Chips because they don't have a meat flavored chip. I don't know why they don't because I think it would be a big seller. Maybe I will e-mail them with my idea later today.

33% is good, but next year Sun Chips will introduce the first fully compostable chip bag of its kind. The bags will fully decompose in about 14 weeks when placed in a hot, active compost bin. Wow! That is so cutting edge!

Since Frito Lay makes Sun Chips, hopefully they will introduce compostable chip bags for their other chip products. Something else that you should know about they way Sun Chips does business is that they added solar energy to their plant in Modesto, Calif. The energy that isn’t used to produce its 145,000 bags of whole grain chips a day is offset by energy credits under a companywide program instituted by parent company PepsiCo. They are paving the green way for others to follow. Check out this short video of the compostable bag and remember that we can all make changes in our lives to eliminate waste, so please do your part.

2 comments:

Apollo said...

My Mommy eats Sun Chips! Now I can tell her how she's helping the environment, so she can keep on eating them instead of the other junk.

Stubby said...

Apollo - You are so funny and cute! Your mommy is not really helping the environment by eating Sun Chips, but the packaging they com in is the best for the environment compared to other chips. Does that make any sense?

Stubby xoxo