Key Points
Im part of the problem.. Most bags for potato chips and other crispy snacks are made with three layers of polymer materials: a moisture barrier on the inside (usually biaxially oriented polypropylene), low-density polyethylene in the middle and an outer layer of thermoplastic resin..
We were called crazy a number of times, Cutara says.. For Sean Mason and Mark Green, co-founders of British crisps company Two Farmers, it took five years to find a packaging material that would both biodegrade and keep their chips crunchy..
Mason, who credits David Attenboroughs Blue Planet II with helping put single-use plastics on Brits radar, says his companys bags take 30 to 36 weeks to decompose in home composting systems, or 11 weeks in an industrial composter...
Were going through a test and learn phase [with Off the Eaten Path] as we work towards our ultimate goal of designing 100% of our packaging to be either recyclable, compostable, biodegradable or re-usable, says David Allen, vice president and chief sustainability officer for Pepsi-Co Foods North America...
Those hurdles are part of why Cutara says Made from Stone bags are catching on: Packaging manufacturers can keep using their existing equipment, and calcium carbonate is naturally abundant with relatively stable pricing.. If somebody came to my potato chip company and said, I want you to change everything and get rid of your suppliers and its going to cost you more, the answer would be, Thank you, but we have no interest, he says..
