Making a packet out of peelings
Recycled potato peelings could be used to make environmentally friendly crisp packets, according to a UK snack firm.
Walkers says it has already developed cellulose crisp bags made from wood pulp – but this resulted in ‘crackly’ bags that might put off customers. The Leicester-based company now hopes that bags made of starch waste from potatoes will prove more appealing.
Walkers, the UK’s biggest crisp maker, says its aiming to make packets out of peelings within 18 months.
“In reality, if you think about starch – and you know how sticky starch is – if you could mass it together you could create a layer of starch and stabilise that,” explains Richard Evans, president of parent company PepsiCo UK. “We could use the peelings we have, that today go to animal feed and other recycling uses, to be turned into a crisp packets.”
However, he says the firm is still experimenting with cellulose as it wants to create bags that would naturally decompose.
Walkers makes 10 million bags of crisps each day.