There is a limit to what American consumers will sacrifice in the name of sustainability. The ability to sneak a handful of chip snacks quietly in the middle of the night is one of those things.
Frito Lay launched biodegradable bags for its SunChip snack line in April of 2009. (The launch in Canada came nearly a year later. See ShortTakes, Better Farming, April 2010.) Citing widespread complaints from consumers, Frito Lay spent the fall converting back to its original plastic packaging for most SunChip flavours sold in the United States. The molecular structure of the plant-based packaging that made them compostable also made them loud. Associated Press reports that a number of Facebook groups were based on complaints about the noisy bags.