Today I was looking around The Wall Street Journal online and I came across this article about Frito-Lay’s biodegradable packaging for Sun Chips. The article explained how the company’s switch from the standard, polluting food packaging to biodegradable, environmentally-friendly packaging has actually caused a great decrease in Sun Chip sales in the last eight months. Apparently, the newer, clean packaging is “noisy” and annoying to consumers, so they stopped buying and switched to a substitute good.
When I first heard of the biodegradable bag, I respected PepsiCo (the company that owns Frito-Lay) for coming up with this innovative idea, and hoped that the company would set an example for others – I thought that maybe this environmentally-friendly type of packaging would eventually become the norm. But after reading this article, I was disturbed to see how easily PepsiCo succumbed to economic pressures. While I first thought that PepsiCo might actually care about the environment, at the end of the day it seems that it still cares about capital and monetary gain most above anything else.
Here’s the link to the article: Sun Chips Bag to Lose Its Crunch
I really don’t think it is right to be angry with Frito-Lay for returning to its old, non bio-degradable packaging for nearly all of its flavors. Frito-Lay and PepsiCo after all, are corporations, and even though their switch to biodegradable packaging may have seemed like a “virtuous action”, it was driven largely by the possibility for monetary gain. That is the nature of capitalism. At least PepsiCo was taking a step in the right direction, even if its motives weren’t selfless. The blame, I think, lies with the American public. The bags were recalled because of the public’s response to their noisiness, which shows how skewed our culture’s values are. Here was our chance to show support for “green technologies” (even if it was on a very small scale) and we failed miserably. Still, one hopeful part of this article is that it shows the power that consumers can have. We have, through the power of our preference and buying, some control over what corporations do. Imagine if the new bags had become wildly popular! I bet other corporations would have followed Frito-Lay’s example with their own packaging. We do have power as individuals and everything, from the chips that we buy, can make a difference if it happens on a large scale. That was definitely a nice reminder for me, because sometimes it seems like individual actions don’t really make a difference. Now the problem lies with changing public opinion, reinforcing values of sustainability, or, in some cases, making people practice what they preach!
You make a very interesting point, Zoe, which I think is completely true. Now that I think about it, the power really is in the hands of the American public and not corporations, because we have the power to boycott certain companies and support others. But because of our current values and standards, do you think that we as a nation will be able to influence corporate environmental changes?
I don’t really know. It’s hard for me to get a good picture of what America is really like. Do people understand the issues? Do people care? I feel like it would be totally possible to push people to boycott certain companies here at Middlebury, but how do you even begin to work towards a change in the entire nation? What do you think?
This article is a disturbing example of the role of capitalism and in our country. Frito Lay’s biodegradable bags were a step in the right direction environmentally but a step back economically. In the end capital won out over the environment. If people keep sacrificing the environment in favor of personal gain, our planet is going to continue to suffer. Additionally, the selfishness of the American consumers is kind of ludicrous. Really? The bags were too loud so you stopped buying them? A loud bag is nothing compared to another Hurricane hitting the gulf coast or sea levels rising so high that coastal towns no longer exist.
Nice catch, Emily! I think that what you’re looking it — and this should actually NOT be surprising, not after reading Hedges — is what a corporation is, how it “lives” and “exists.” Corporations live to make money; they have to grow. The bio bag was, I’m certain, a decision meant to place them above the shoulders of competitors; however, when the consumer pushed back and, thus, the threat of losing shares in the market became a reality, they stopped. So much for virtuous action!