Reusable grocery shopping bags are such a normal part of everyday existence today, that a lot of people never give them a second thought. Thats because of what happened back in changed it all, San Francisco made waves by passing a ban on single-use plastic bags. While San Franciscos ban would go through several revisions and did not become official until , it got a lot of people across the U.S. thinking about shopping bags. In this second installment of our two-part series, were going to look into the history of single-use plastic bags. Be sure to catch up on the first part in this two-part series and learn more about the history of reusable bags.
Click here to get more.
In , chemists in Norwich, England accidentally produced polyethylene. It would take time, but this plastic would go on to become one of the most used materials in the world. In , Celloplast, a Swedish company, figured out how to make bags using thin film polyethylene. By Celloplast employee, Gustaf Thulin Sten, had perfected the process and invented what is known as the T-shirt plastic bag.
Single-use plastic shopping bags first became available in the U.S. in . In , two of the largest grocery store chains in the country, Safeway and Kroger, began offering single-use plastic bags to their customers. However, at this point, plastic bags were still not catching on in every place.
All that changed in , when a speaker at a convention for the Society of Plastic Engineers, spoke about how inexpensive single-use plastic bags were compared to paper bags. Single-use plastic bags almost immediately began showing up at grocery stores all over the Unites States.
Shoppers in more suburban areas were not sold on plastic bags in the beginning. They preferred flat-bottomed paper bags, which could easily stand up in the trunks or back seats of cars. Single-use plastic bags caught on much more quickly in urban areas, where the handles made it easy for shoppers to carry multiple bags as they walked home. Despite customer preference, retailers preferred single-use plastic bags because of the lower price point. For this reason, plastic bags reigned supreme.
During the s single-use plastic bags had more critics that just suburban moms irritated by their groceries sliding around in the trunks of their cars. Environmentalists began to take note of these omnipresent bags. The first issue was the materials that went into producing the thin plastic film. Polyethylene is made from non-renewable resources, namely natural gas and oil. Extraction and production of these materials come with controversial social and political implications.
Furthermore, there is no acceptable way to handle these bags once they have fulfilled their purpose. If consumers toss their leftover plastic bags in the trash, they end up sitting in a landfill pretty much forever. Single-use plastic bags are also very likely to end up as litter. The lightweight construction makes it easy for a strong burst of wind to lift the bags out of garbage cans or trucks or landfills and carry them off. Plastic litter is a serious health risk to animals and it turns out for people too.
Opposition to single-use plastic bags began mounting in the s and through the s. In the Great Pacific Garbage Patch was discovered, and this began to change how people viewed plastics. It was still another decade before San Francisco took that first stand against single-use plastic bags, but the effort has only gained momentum since then. Efforts to ban single-use plastic bags have spread across the world as people are beginning to understand that plastic is bad for the planet.
With plastic bags becoming a controversial item, many shoppers are making the switch to reusable grocery bags. Often made from recycled or sustainable materials, these durable alternatives do the same work as single-use bags, but without the environmental damage. Many brands are also turning to reusable bags as effective promotional products.
Find out more about reusable grocery bags and what they can do for your brand and learn more about the bag ban movement by checking out our map. If you have questions about marketing your brand with custom reusable bags we are here to help. With almost 30 years in the business of creating custom promotional products, we have learned a thing or two about how to make the entire process as quick and easy as possible.
Tagged
Plastic bags are ubiquitous and most people dont question it. Why?
Less than 50 years ago plastic bags were a rarity. Now you it seems like you cant buy anything without it being carried out in a branded plastic bag.
If we can understand how we got ourselves here, maybe we can find a way to get ourselves out.
Single-use plastics are plastics that are designed to be used only once or for a very short period of time, and then thrown out.
Single-use plastics may be used to create everything from wrappers to plastic cups to plastic bags. Unfortunately, the convenience of single-use plastic comes at the cost of the environment.
All disposable plastic bags are considered single-use plastic. Polyethylene (the most common type of plastic used for disposable bags) was first created in but it was not until the mid s that a high-density polyethylene was invented. High density polyethylene was the breakthrough that enabled the production of cheap, yet strong plastic bags.
Single-use plastic shopping bags first appeared in the U.S. in , and were subsequently picked up by several large grocery store chains.
This seemingly simple invention changed the way we shop and had unimaginable consequences for our natural environment.
A Brief History of Disposable Bags
Polyethylene is the most common type of plastic for disposable bags
HDPE gives plastics the strength they need to be light, moldable, and still strong.
Goto Bage Machinery to know more.
The plastic bag we use today is invented by the Swedish company Celloplast.
The Dixie Bag Company begins manufacturing and marketing plastic bags as an alternative to the then-used paper bags in grocery stores.
Grocery chains Kroger and Safeway replace their paper bags with plastic.
It didnt take long for grocers and department stores to realize that plastic bags were stronger and cheaper.
Disposable plastic bags became so popular so fast mainly because of their convenience.
Before plastic bags, there was paper. Paper bags worked but they were not easy to carry and they werent nearly as strong as plastic. The most important part paper was more expensive to produce than plastic.
The plastic bag not only made life easier for the consumer, it also saved retailers money.
Although we see the downsides of plastic bags today, you can see why at the time they were adopted so rapidly.
The problem with plastic that wasnt considered at the time, is its impact on our environment and how that inevitably impacts us.
High-density polyethylenes application to plastic bags may have benefited the consumer and the retailer, but the environmental ramifications of widespread use are disastrous.
There are a host of issues caused by plastic bags that directly impact humans. The main issues are:
Get the details here: Why We Should Not Use Plastic Bags
What Does This Mean for Us?
Plastic bags have risen to dominance because of the need for a cheap and useful way to transport goods. Unfortunately, we are now paying the price with environmental degradation and the health implications that result.
Although most of this transition was out of the hands of the consumer, our transition to a more sustainable future very much is.
Now that we understand the impact of our disposable bag use, its up to us to find and use alternatives.
The plastic bag revolution started with an invention and proliferated one bag at a time as consumers found it more useful. Now its time for a replacement. Here are a few options: alternatives to plastic bags.
Fastradius.com
Cctexas.com
stopusingplasticbags.weebly.com
Reason Magazine
If you want to learn more, please visit our website plastic bag making machine.