In this post I wrote about the 100% compostable snack food bag that Sun Chips is now using for their larger bags of chips. As a composter, I was intrigued by this bag and thought I would throw it into the pile and see what happens.
Well a month later the bag looks pretty much the same, however there is something going on as it appears that the film is separating that makes up the layers in the wrap that compose this bag. It hasn't been hot enough yet here to get a good cooking temperature going, so I think the progress so far is good. It should take approximately 14 weeks for it to compost completely. Sorry I have no photos. I plugged the camera battery charger in to charge my battery, and it fell out of the socket after I walked away. Hence the battery was not charged when I was working on the compost pile.
If you would like more information about Nature Work LLC, the company that manufacturers the film used in these bags, click here. If you would like more information about this bag, you can go here. They have a lot of good information on the site.
Thanks for the article. Have to say though, I did some research last year and most of these degradable bags are made from polylactic acid and are only industrial compostable. There are only 25 industrial composting facilities in the US and only 10 allow the public to contribute.
I'm hoping things have changed and you have luck with it breaking down. The key will be to see if it breaks into pieces (degradable) vs sorta melting away as it biodegrades. Keep us in the loop.
Posted by: HowardPkg | 04/19/2010 at 03:50 PM