Consumer Reports Magazine: January 2012
Frito-Lay scrapped its SunChips Original bag last year (too noisy) but says that the newer bag, like the old, is “100% compostable.” We decided that a retest was in order. On the bag’s back are the words “designed to compost in about 14 weeks in a hot, active home or industrial compost pile.” In tiny type on the bag’s base: “This package is suitable for industrial composting.”
Most people don’t have access to an industrial compost pile, so we put a SunChips bag in a typical home pile of grass clippings, wood chips, leaves, and starter dirt, and kept it there for 14 weeks, adding compost and watering as needed. We also measured noise while crinkling the newer bag, the older bag, and a Tostitos bag.
Bottom line. The bag barely changed in the compost pile. (A very hot compost pile would probably be more effective.) The newer bag is quieter than the previous version, but it’s still louder than a Tostitos bag.
One of my favorite magazines decided to try this experiment too…not surprising results at all. This bag needs extreme heat and mass to get it decomposing properly.