Compostable bag?

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

Sunchips has this "greening the world" thing going on. They are very proud of their extra crinkly bag, because it's "100% compostable".

I'm not sure what sort of composting they used to make this claim, but I use chickens.

My chickens are incredible composters. Because they are constantly moving the compost, while pooping nitrogen all over it, they have managed to break down every organic material I have thrown at them. I put things in there you are never supposed to compost. Kitchen scraps last a week (what doesn't get eaten), except for orange peel, which takes a month, and bone, which takes three months to break down enough that you have to get seriously intimate to tell what it is, but only 6 weeks to start to show signs of decomposition.

They have managed to break down hair, dryer lint, old rags and clothing fabric etc that can't be salvaged, they even are most of the way through breaking down a futon pad (minus the stryrofoam. If it is not plastic or metal, I throw it in there. My junk mail goes in their nest box first, then into the pen, weeds from the yard, weeds and clippings from other peoples yards, as many leaves as I can find on the street....it all goes in and I have NEVER in the year and a half I've had chickens, had to empty the pen. It never fills up, it's always a couple inches, at most, above the hard part of Texas soil.

My point? Super efficient composters.

So I put the chip bag in there. Ever put a layer of leaves on it to get it attention. I'm about to add more leaves because they have broken down everything in their pen, and are down to just above base soil level again....

...but before i do, I picked up the "compostable" sun chips bag pieces.

That's right, six weeks it has been in there, and the pieces are big enough I can pick them all up....and is that, a plastic lining under the foil type surface layer? The bag is almost all there, front and back. There is one corner I can't find, but I didn't look hard.

This is garbage, pure and simple. I'm going to keep letting them try, unless the plastic bits start breaking off and threatening my chickens, but you can bet I won't be buying the chips again, and Sunchips will be getting an email from me...with pictorial evidence.

I am not impressed with their lies....or, at best, their misleading advertising. Click pic to see larger:



and no, that isn't a missing corner down at the bottom, that's chicken poop.

I am not impressed, Sunchips.

ETA: and despite the new info I'm getting, which is totally fascinating, thanks, ya'll!...further research into it online is not making me think it's any better for the environment (or us) than any other plastic.

Comments

[oxymoron02.livejournal.com]

Impressed or not, they announced in the last month or so that they are discontinuing the compostable bags. The increased sales expected from those wanting to save the planet were not enough to offset the decrease in sales from those who just like Sunchips and hated how loud the new bag is. Bottom line, they're losing money, so they're stopping.

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

Which is fine with me, given the other problems with them, but Stonyfield just announced a similar "corn based plastic compostable container".

Which I suspect is also bullshit.

[oxymoron02.livejournal.com]

The FTC is going to be cracking down on greenwashing. I don't know if compostability is on their to-do list, but they also announced in the last month or so that they'll be creating legally enforceable definitions for a lot of vague terms companies are using.

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

That would be a very helpful thing, glad to hear it. :)

[feuervogel]

The corn-based ones can only be composted at higher temperatures than are found in home compost piles. They have to go to commercial operations for composting.

(My co-op uses them, and they also take them back for delivery to a contracted commercial compost operation.)

[panthyr.livejournal.com]

What they claim is that their bag will compost in 12-16 weeks if it's buried in an aerobic composting pile that's active enough to maintain a steady temperature of 130+ degrees for at least the first two weeks. (The California standard calls for an active compost pile to maintain 122+ degrees.) If you tell them you are letting your chickens move it around and pick at it, they'll probably not even send you a form letter in reply.

As far as standards go, the ASTM already has clearly defined standards for compostable plastics:
"capable of undergoing biological decomposition in a compost site as part of an available program, such that the plastic is not visually distinguishable and breaks down to carbon dioxide, water, inorganic compounds, and biomass, at a rate consistent with known compostable materials (e.g. cellulose). and leaves no toxic residue." In order for a plastic to be called compostable, three criteria need to be met:

1. Biodegrade - break down into carbon dioxide, water, biomass at the same rate as cellulose (paper).
2. Disintegrate - the material is indistinguishable in the compost, that it is not visible and needs to be screened out
3. Eco-toxicity - the biodegradation does not produce any toxic material and the compost can support plant growth.

They have some fancy white papers (which you have to buy from them if you want it to be official), but the gist of it is that if you meet their standard for a composting environment, you should expect plastic bags to be gone in about 3-6 months in a home pile, and 1-3 in in an industrial composting facility.

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

"moving it around and pecking at it" isn't what I said. I said they constantly aerate my compost and add nitrogen to it, which results in them being able to rapidly compost things you can't normally put in a compost pile, in addition to the usual compostables. I just object to the greenwashing involved in saying it is compostable if you HAVE to do it in a commercial facility in order to break the plastic into bitty enough pieces not to "count". What the hell? That's not compost, and most of us don't have access to that sort of facility anyway. Heck, black plastic garbage bags break into smaller pieces than this thing does (not that that's a good thing...cuz it isn't).