Were 'Biodegradable' Sun Chips Bags Not So Biodegradable?

Before you shed a green, biodegradable tear over news that Sun Chips has scrapped its environmentally friendly but unwieldy packaging, consider the possibility that perhaps the bags didn’t dissolve into nothing as easily as advertised.

Claire sent us her blog post about how she and her husband tried and failed to sacrifice a Sun Chips bag to their compost pile.

A telling excerpt:

Although the company claimed that the bag would break down in fourteen weeks in a hot, active compost pile, it didn’t break down in ours. A good sixteen weeks after we composed the bag, I pulled it out and, well, see for yourself how much of it degraded. (The black stuff is decayed material, not ordinary garden dirt.)

Do any of you composters have any evidence to back up or refute Claire’s findings?

The Truth about the SunChips Bag [Zulkey]

Previously: Unbearably Noisy Biodegradable SunChips Bag Terminated

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.