Not all of them of shiny, some are white. To help keep the bag fresh, there’s actually 3 layers. The middle layer is plastic kind of like a grocery bag, it has the label & nutritional info. Then there’s a protective plastic layer on the outside to help protect it & makes sure the label won’t wear off. The thin aluminum coating on the inside helps strengthen the bag
there’s also nitrogen in the bag to help keep it fresh, if they filled it with oxygen they’d end up going stale inside the bag
Plastic helps keep moisture out, nitrogen helps keep chips fresh, aluminum coating strengthens the bag
Chip bags are usually given an interior coating of aluminum. This is because most bags are made of polyethylene, which is not an oxygen barrier. As the oils in the chips oxidize, the flavor changes (they basically sour), which would severely shorten their shelf life. In order to slow this process, the plastic is doped (coated) with a very thin layer of aluminum to help block oxygen. The bags are also usually packed in a nitrogen or other inert-gas environment to further delay oxidation.
Our local recycling centre wants us to separate these out from other plastic bags. I’m not sure why, and it’s as much as I can do to recycle plastic bags there which are not accepted in our general recycling. We have four bins: for garbage; general recycling including metal, plastic bottles and containers, paper and cardboard; glass; and food and garden waste. We have two compost heaps but my wife refuses to put any weeds into these. It’s endless.
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