Frito Lay SunChips Bag Dooms Earth

Plano-based Frito Lay created some noise in the marketplace last year when it began using the “world’s first 100 percent compostable chip bag” on its SunChips products.

Now the only noise being heard is the whooshing sound of their deflated reputation.

Discarded plastic is the scourge of landfills and oceans, and so developing a compostable bag was an admirable, earth-friendly move.

Frito Lay deserved and received kudos.

However, some customers complained that the new bags were too noisy.

Huh?

That’s right, people who are shoving crunchy fried snacks into their faces and chomping them noisily wanted their bags to remain quiet.

Facebook pages were created, with consumers lamenting their horrendous inconveniences, such as “I wanted SunChips but my roommate was sleeping… .”

The horror. The horror.

Frito Lay, ever concerned with pleasing consumers, switched back to the plastic bags.

They might want to revisit some of those Facebook pages — most commentators today appear to be outraged by the company’s reversal.

Frito Lay spokeswoman Aurora Gonzalez was busy fielding phone calls today. But she didn’t have much to say.

She did not reveal the number of complaints the company received about the noisy bags, but said they outnumbered the compliments the company got for going green.

And Frito Lay is not abandoning the compostable bags, she said. The company will continue to put its original flavor chips in compostable bags, and is working on the next generation of environmentally sound bags that aren’t as noisy.

“Innovation is a journey,” she said.

So is back-pedaling.