Sustainable Products Require Certain Adjustments

The original title of this post was 'Sustainable Products Require Certain Sacrifices,' but I decided to change 'Sacrifices' to 'Adjustments' because people generally hate the concept of sacrificing comfort. I also changed the title because what I am going to be talking about in this article should never be viewed as an earth-shattering sacrifice.

Recently, SunChips decided to discontinue their compostable bag in the United States due to "consumer pressure."  By consumer pressure, of course I mean a facebook page - what else could I mean?  In a world where a movie about a website is being considered for an Academy Award, I wouldn't expect anything less from web-based petition movements that are most likely started by some stoned-coed.

At least Canada still seems to be sane by releasing a public service announcement talking about why the bags may be noisier than their petroleum-based counterparts.

I like to believe that market-based forces are the best solution for many of our environmental problems, but this is a fantastic example of how the market can be resoundingly backwards.  I have a hard time believing that SunChips was spiraling into the red because their bags were noisy - the more likely reason is that SunChips (PepsiCo.) was just worried about negative press.

They should have realized by now that America has a relatively short attention span when it comes to these types of stories and they should have stuck it out in the pursuit of doing the right thing while also setting an example for other companies.

As our population continues to grow so will our levels of consumption - which ultimately increases our amount of waste.  It is unlikely that we are going to reduce our intake over night, so the more logical move is to move to more sustainable products that have a minimal impact on the environment - such as these chip bags.

Yes, there will be tradeoffs and adjustments when using these products, but if noise level is our biggest concern when using these products then people need to just deal with it.