Chip Bags
By: Lucas Mendes
Materials
Potato chip bags are likely to be made from thin multilayer films.
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is commonly used as a major layer in these bags because it has low gas permeability to the nitrogen gas the bag is filled with to prevent oxidation and spoilages. It may be metallized to further enhance barrier properties.
Chip bags obviously hold chips for as long as required.
And
The metal is aluminum. "Mylar" is a DuPont trademark for PET film. In large volume production, the metallization will likely be done during the process in which the final film is produced and printed. A major supplier like e.g., Frito-Lay may do the whole thing in-house.
Recycle?
Chip bags have harmful affects on the environment if not disposed properly. They can just float about.
These items tend to be made of mixed materials, making the recovery of useful plastics and other materials difficult and expensive. In other words, most recyclers don't want to touch the stuff!
But up cycling company TerraCycle has made a name of creatively reusing these snack wrappers, drink pouches, candy wrappers and chip bags. The company turns them into school supplies, bags, toys, pet products, household cleaner bottles and even materials for your garden.What Now?
If we reduce the amount of trash we have by reusing the materials through recycling programs we will diminish our emission output and our plastics will have less damaging effects to the earth.