New potato chip bags are good for the environment, but bad for your hearing. The bags are 128 times noisier than ordinary chip bags.

The American chip manufacturers Sun Chips have produced a biodegradable bag for their chips (crisps in the UK).

Chip bags should not be thrown out into nature, but rather in the bin. The new bags are, however, made of 100% natural materials, so should they end up in the wrong place, they will decompose within 14 weeks.That is all well and good, but the bags are still noisy. Actually 128 times noisier than a regular bag.

Heathaplexvision.com have tested the bag and compared it with regular chip bags. They have measured the noise from an ordinary chip bag and from the new recyclable bag from Sun Chips with a decibel metre. While the ordinary bag gives off a sound pressure of 75-77 dB, the new bags give off a sound pressure of around 95-97 dB when one touches them. That is very high.

Development project 

A rise of 3 dB is a two fold increase in sound pressure. A rise of 21 dB is the same as the sound pressure being 128 times higher (the sound is doubled 7 times). Normally, one should only be exposed to a sound pressure of 95-97 dB for a maximum of 30 minutes per day and many countries recommend a daily exposure to noise of less than 85 dB.

Recycling is good, but one wonders if Sun Chips are developing a way to reduce the noise from the bags.

Source: http://heathaplexvision.com