Wednesday, October 1, 2008

betcha you can't eat just one



What is up with potato chip bags? A billion dollar industry like that you would think could come up with a recyclable bag! According to the Frito-Lay website, their bags may be recycled but they do not have a recycle symbol or number on the bag, and in their own words the bag is made of plastic with what looks like foil lining, so at this time there is no place to take them to be recycled.

Lay’s brand and Ruffles brand potato chips, once packaged in composite plastic bags, now are packaged in metallized plastic bags.

This results in a 25% reduction of weight in the packaging material used for these two products and a reduction of more than 6 million pounds of packaging material per year from being placed in landfills.


Just a quick Google search on recycling potato chip bags brings up all kinds of ideas - making them into purses or bracelets or wrapping paper, but nothing on recycling. Some research on the internet says they are not recyclable. So it looks like the nice shiny bags are going to be around forever, in one form or another.

I know, I shouldn't be eating them, then problem solved, actually more problems than one!

spring