• Wall Street Journal, Wednesday, August 18, 2010 9:14 AM

Man, oh, man, what will those fussy consumers complain about next? I mean Frito-Lay goes out and spends four years to develop a compostable bag for Sun Chips that's "cooked with steam from solar energy" and what's the reaction to all that environmental friendliness? It's too noisy, Suzanne Vranica reports.

Like a "revving motorcycle," says one crank; "glass breaking," moans another. Air Force pilot J. Scot Heathman would have you believe the loud crackling sounds the bag makes are louder than the cockpit of his jet. (A RadioShack sound meter backs him up.) There's even a Facebook group -- "SORRY BUT I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THIS SUN CHIPS BAG" -- with about 30,000 fans.

The original bags were made from polymers that weren't recyclable. The new plant-based material, polylactic acid, fully decomposes in about 14 weeks in a hot, active compost pile. Problem is, sales have pretty much been decomposing, too, since the bags were introduced in January, according to Symphony IRI, despite signs on store shelves that read: "Yes, the bag is loud, that's what change sounds like."

Frito-Lay engineers are on the case.

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