Environmentally conscious crisps

Crisps have been a staple in vending machines for decades. They are handy, inexpensive and filling, but not a lot of people think about how they could be better for the environment. Well, that’s about to change as Walkers, the makers of Britain’s favourite brands of crisps are working on ways to reduce its carbon emissions.

Walkers will reduce by up to 70 per cent their carbon emissions by taking some pretty simple measures including taking the thousands of tons of waste potato skins the crisp making process creates and combing them with CO2 from beer production to create fertiliser for fresh crops of potatoes. Walkers have also installed an anaerobic digester at the factory, which feeds potato waste to bacteria that produces methane gas. The methane gas is then burnt to produce electricity for the factory in Leicester.

Crisp packets are one of the items most often collected on beach clean up’s and some packets have been in the environment for decades and show no signs of degrading. This issue is also be addressed by Walkers who by 2025 will only use packaging that is compostable, biodegradable or can be properly recycled.