File this one under “random.” Yesterday, I went to get some grocery necessities for our dinner of handmade turkey burgers. I picked up a bag of garden-salsa flavored Sun Chips. The bag emitted a noise so surprisingly loud that I jumped. The HELL was that?
Then I remembered that Sun Chips recently announced a commitment to make their chip bags from compostable material. And then recalled a Facebook discussion between some eco-minded buddies, who couldn’t believe that anyone would have the gall to complain about the bag’s decibel level.
In full disclosure, I would not call myself an environmentalist. I try not to do anything really egregious, like use too many plastic water bottles, drive a Hummer or club seals. And I give Frito-Lay a lot of credit for coming up with this new packaging. Apparently there’s something in the makeup of the new material that causes the noise.
But there’s no getting around it: this thing is loud. Loud enough to drown out normal conversation or television noise, depending on how vigorously you open it and grab for chips. Forum posters describe the bag noise as “like a goddamn thunderstorm” or “a car crash.” Yes, hyperbole is funny. But they’re not that far off.
Will the volume of the bag affect sales? Who knows. Personally, I like Sun Chips enough to deal with it. But I wouldn’t bring a bag to a quiet office, or a library, or anywhere near sleeping babies…
Leeanne Griffin is a freelance writer and food enthusiast.
Granted, yes, they are noisy but it’s worth it! Little tip: if you’re watching TV put them into a bowl. Portion control plus it’s quieter
I wish more companies would take steps like this. I’m also guessing that they are working on a quieter version of the compostable bag as we speak, given the all of the hullabaloo.
I just think it’s funny. There are a million YouTube clips demonstrating the noise level.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Leeanne Griffin. Leeanne Griffin said: New blog post: Let's talk about these new, LOUD Sun Chips bags. http://bit.ly/99htOc [...]
I had no idea. That is loud!
I think the whole compostable bag thing is sort of bogus personally. It’s okay to kill yourself with junk food as long as you’re eating it out of an environmentally friendly bag??! What better sums up the current wacked out thinking of Americans?
So this loud biodegradeable bag will be put in a non bio degradeable bag with regular garbage and sit in a land fill forever?
According to the Frito-Lay website, the bag will not decompose in a regular landfill. It needs to be placed in a compost pile, not a commercial/industrial landfill, in order to completely biodegrade. I can’t imagine a single Sun Chips consumer taking the time to develop and cultivate a compost pile just so his/her chip bags will disintegrate. Frito-Lay developed this bag as a “green-friendly” marketing ploy, knowing full well that hardly any of these loud, annoying bags will ever biodegrade.