Greener Packaging: SunChips will come in biodegradable bag

Frito-Lay already harnesses renewable energy when it cooks SunChips at its Modesto plant. Solar panels covering ground the size of a football field pump power inside.

The company's about to make the bag that leaves the plant a little greener, too.

Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo., this week announced its plan to make an entirely degradable bag for its SunChips brand by Earth Day 2010, a change intended to keep petroleum- based packaging out of landfills.

It's rolling out an early version of the compostable bag made with some of the plant-based renewable materials that will go into the new packages.

"We know environmentally friendly packaging is a priority for our SunChips consumer," said Gannon Jones, Frito-Lay's North America marketing vice president.

The trade-off comes with a somewhat less shiny chip bag, but it pops a message intended to make the product stand out for green shoppers.

A yellow star in the bag's top right corner reads, "Renewable materials make up 33 percent of this bag."

That kind of product can ease the conscience of consumers who don't like the idea of their purchases lingering in landfills for decades. It also fits with a statewide push to reduce use of plastic bags that shoppers pick up at grocery stores.

"The demand for products like degradable bags, cups and silverware is starting to have an impact," said Modesto Solid Waste Division Manager Jocelyn Reed, who oversees a program to get residents to put more degradable paper products in green waste containers that head to the city's compost site.

The company plans to get the word out about the new bags over the next year with an advertising campaign, including a video showing how the bags decompose in compost piles within 14 weeks.

Moving to compostable bags isn't the only effort Frito-Lay makes to close the loop on waste generated at the Modesto plant. It also delivers organic waste from its chips to an animal feed supply company.

"We basically send almost nothing to the landfill," said Matt Fenton, manufacturing manager at the Modesto site.

Bee staff writer Adam Ashton can be reached at aashton@modbee.com or 578-2366.