SunChips Ditches Compostable Bags Because They're "Too Noisy"

Frito-Lay earned the praise of tree-huggers everywhere last year when it released its "green" SunChips bag. The bag boasts all sorts of environmentally friendly attributes: It's made of plant-based materials; it's biodegradable and compostable; it disintegrates in a mere 14 weeks. It is quite literally all that and a bag of chips.

But all that serious green cred couldn't stand up to the bag's one drawback — it's noisy, and American consumers just can't handle all that crinkling and crackling as they munch on their chips.

Frito-Lay announced today that it will immediately stop producing its compostable bags a mere 18 months after the little green sacks debuted. Five out of six of SunChips' varieties will come packaged in the company's former, non-recyclable bags, while SunChips "Original"-flavored chips will remain in the biodegradable packaging. The company claims it will start working on a "new, quieter eco-friendly bag," USA Today reports.

The switcheroo came after Americans complained about the bags' noise level — the little sacks apparently cause quite the ruckus as folks stick their paws in and out to grab fistfuls of chips. In the past year alone, SunChips sales decreased by more than 11 percent, mostly due to the boisterous bags. A Facebook group called "Sorry But I Can't Hear You Over This SunChips Bag" boasts more than 44,500 fans. Apparently a SunChips bag that drowns out the sound of one's own chip-crunching was very disconcerting for a populace that's come to expect a more subtle rustling from its potato chip sacks.

I wish I could say this SunChips bag ridiculousness is an isolated incident, but unfortunately America's caught in a trend of balking at earth-friendly products that differ ever-so-slightly from the planet-destroyers we're all accustomed to using. Americans want green products — they really do — just not if they're a bit too small (as is the case with Smart Cars); give off kind of a funny-colored glow (like CFL lightbulbs); or produce too much noise as we're stuffing our faces with salty snacks (SunChips, we're looking at you). We're all so concerned with saving the environment, yet the second a forward-thinking company offers an innovative solution, we reject it just because it's not the status-quo.

Listen up (if you can hear me over your SunChips bag, that is): What's even more uncomfortable than a fluorescent haze or a loud sack is a planet that's crowded with non-biodegradable waste. Frito-Lay's SunChips bag should serve as a type of food packaging that other companies mimic — the sacks shouldn't get, well, sacked just because they're a little noisy. Sign our petition asking Frito-Lay to keep producing its compostable SunChips bags, and send a message to other companies that consumers do want greener packaging for their food products.

Photo credit: tracitodd via Flickr