Long touted (by themselves) as a “healthy” alternative to oil soaked potato chips, Sun Chips is claiming that by 2010, they will begin selling their chips in compostable packaging. The new bag will be made of a plastic which is born from renewable, plant based materials (PLA) and that you’ll be able to compost it in your home compost pile.

Home composting appears to be a growing trend, so the idea of a fully compostable bag is promising to say the least, especially if it impacts and influences other companies looking to cash in on the benefits of making themselves more eco-focussed. Research done on the new chip bags indicate that they’ll compost in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions in 12-16 weeks at temperatures over 55 degrees.

The new Sun Chips bags are made from polyastic acid, or PLA, a unique polymer. According to the press release from Sun Chips:

PLA is made from lactic acid. Lactic acid is made from dextrose by fermentation.
Dextrose is made from starch and starch is made from carbon dioxide and water. Because it’s made with plants that grow annually instead of petroleum (which takes millions of years to form) the impact on greenhouse gases is much lower.

This could mean big things for the future of food packaging. Now we just need to figure out a way to stop ourselves from eating entire bags of chips in one sitting.