Process and how it is treated
Most American garbage ends up in landfills, according to the National Solids Waste Management Association. Americans create a lot of trash. The whole of america generates over 251 million tonnes of trash per year (as of 2000). All this waste is sent off to landfills by consumers that are unaware of the impacts of plastic. It takes 1000 years for plastic to decompose in a landfill. If consumers that know about what the packaging is made of and how long it takes to decompose, they might try to recycle them or use help from Terracycle (see below). This trash that includes lots of chips bags is just left in landfills. It does not get incinerated as that creates more toxic gas. Since the packaging is made of a blend of aluminium and plastic, it is a hot mess and cannot be broken down and recycled very easily.
How frito-lay helps
Frito-Lay paired up with Terracycle. Terracycle is a service that takes non-recyclable pre-consumer and post-consumer waste and turns it into a raw material to be used in new products. Now, Terracycle is allowing people to send their chips bags in and get things made out of them like bags and clipboards. They will get the bags, clipboards, etc. for free after the people at Terracycle convert them from chips bags into useful things.