Have you been following the furor over the super-loud SunChips bag? I’ve written a number of posts about SunChips’ move from partially compostable to fully compostable packaging, but man, the sound of compostability is loud! The 100% compostable bag even made the national news a few weeks back due to a groundswell of complaints about its decibel level. It even has a Facebook fan page with 42,000+ followers called, “I’m Sorry, I Can’t Hear You Over This Sun Chips Bag.”
With all this chatter, I’d love to ask Frito Lay whether the groundswell has helped or hurt sales. Add up the YouTube video hits, the Facebook pages, the blog clicks, and the millions of eyeballs on the Today Show and it seems that the entire world now knows that SunChips’ bags are compostable. When they are in the store, those viewers are going to crunch a bag or two. Some might even read the label. Throw a bag into the cart (after all, it’s already in their hand). Who cares if the bags are loud? Who really buys or doesn’t buy snack chips based on the sound of the bag?
Granted, you don’t want to annoy your customers. So it will be interesting to watch whether Frito Lay stays with this corn starch based bag or whether, once it gets the full benefit of the free publicity the ear-splitting bag has generated, it will move to something quieter like that offered by Boulder Canyon products. Unlike the SunChips bag, which is made from corn starch, the bags used by Boulder Canyon are made from wood pulp. The pulp is sourced from managed wood fiber plantations and the bags are ASTM D6400 certified as compostable in all key biodegradation situations (industrial, home, wastewater).
If both bags are compostable, I’d have to say, quieter is better. It allows me to snack without alerting my behavior to my two children in the next room. (“Mommy, can I have a chip, too?” “MOMMY HAS CHIPS!!!!”) But I have to say, nobody is talking about Boulder Canyon’s quiet compostability. The loudness of the SunChips bag is burning up the blogosphere and YouTube.
The answer to the question about volume (does anyone really care about the volume of the bag?) will only become clear once the furor dies down. Certainly, the rush of publicity has to be great for SunChips. But over time, the super-loud crunching has to be a negative on marketability. By contrast, according to Boulder Canyon, its wood-fiber-based bags feel and sound “like a traditional paper bag of chips should, so midnight snacking remains your secret only.”
But then, the loud crunching of SunChips’ bags reminds consumers with every ear-splitting crinkle that they are doing something good for the environment. They’re alerting their neighbors, as well. Call it good peer pressure.
I’ll bet SunChips is testing the crunchiness of both bags in focus groups right now.
I wish to report that Boulder Canyon has sent me two samples of their compostable bags. They feel unusual — like paper (which they are) — and once I’m done polishing off the chips, I’m going to bury them and dig them up occasionally and see how long they take to decompose.
I wish to report that Boulder Canyon has sent me two samples of their compostable bags. They feel unusual — like paper (which they are) — and once I’m done polishing off the chips, I’m going to bury them and dig them up occasionally and see how long they take to decompose.
Very cool indeed. All packaging should be compostable really. Very good to see!