Wednesday, October 06, 2010

People 1, Environment 0 (Publicus Proventus)


Weren't we supposed to be saving the environment, and doing all those little things to help make the world a better place. True, those little things don't actually do anything, but at least we could all feel better about doing something, right?

Wrong, apparently, because now we're not even willing to do the little things.

I'm talking, of course, about the recent decision by Big Snack to cave into consumer demands for quieter-but-more-environmentally-damaging snack chip bags:

Frito-Lay, the American snack maker, will switch back to its old-style plastic packaging for five of its six SunChips flavours after receiving complaints that the new bags were too stiff and too loud. The old packaging should be restored for all five flavours by the end of the month.

(Source.)

So, just so we're clear, it's the young, idealistic people who are bailing on the environment? It seems so -- since the pressure primarily came from Facebook groups:

customers were unhappy with the product and it was lampooned on the internet, spawning Facebook groups such as "I wanted SunChips but my room-mate was sleeping ..." and "Nothing is louder than a SunChips bag."

Do you kids understand you're not supposed to eat the bag? And that you could (God forbid) pour the chips into a bowl and eat them?

I assume this heralds a return to anything goes with the environment, and we can look forward to "tossing plastic bottles out car windows" as the next challenge on The Amazing Race. Because if the environment matters less than a slightly crinkly chip bag, it's game over, Earth:


1 comment:

PT Dilloway said...

Really there should be some way to make a bag that is quiet and "green" you'd think. I mean we can send a man to the moon (supposedly) but we can't make a quiet chip bag that doesn't destroy the earth?