Why? High-density polyethylene’s application to plastic bags may have benefited the consumer and the retailer, but the environmental ramifications of widespread use are disastrous. 1933 – Polyethylene (the most common type of plastic used for disposable bags) is invented. Asking for paper bags meant that you didn’t care about the environment. https://youtu.be/KqcUISOB6nE The modern plastic shopping bag was created in the early 1960's by a Swedish engineer by the name of Sten Gustaf Thulin. Another recalls: “By pickup day, everyone’s cans emitted an odor that was perceivable in the next county!” Garbage day before the invention of garbage bags. All that changed in 1985, 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. 1980s – The Dixie Bag Company begins manufacturing and marketing plastic bags as an alternative to the then used paper bags in grocery stores. The new garbage bags, intended for commercial use, were first sold to the Winnipeg General Hospital. Plastic bags have risen to dominance because of the need for a cheap and useful way to transport goods. He developed a method of creating plastic bags for a Swedish packaging company, Celloplast. A Brief History of Disposable Bags. Email: sales@rutanpoly.com. Less than 50 years ago plastic bags were a rarity. … He has sailed over 35,000 nautical miles to four of the five oceanic ‘garbage patches,’ documenting and communicating maritime plastic pollution firsthand through publications, multi-media, and film. The modern-day shopping bag we all know and use today was invented in the early 1960s by Sten Gustaf Thulin, who was a Swedish engineer. They later became popular for home use. In contrast to the plastic bags, reusable cloth bags consume more space and are considerable heavier. Most plastic bags are heat sealed at the seams, while some are bonded with adhesives or are stitched. Plastic shopping bags, carrier bags, or plastic grocery bags are a type of plastic bag used as shopping bags and made from various kinds of plastic. Whether it’s carrying groceries from your vehicle to your home, or getting take-away from your favorite restaurant, plastic bags are playing an important role in many aspects of our lives! After 1982 – It didn’t take long for grocers and department stores to realize that plastic bags were stronger and cheaper. In 2007 the City of San Francisco banned the plastic bag — so did the entire African Country of Rwanda. Yes, they were more expensive, so baggers were taught what items could and could not be bagged together and how to bag items to get the most in a bag. Plastic bags are quicker to open, pack and double up, saving you few seconds. I’ll need to look into it further. California was the first state in August 2014 to impose a ban statewide on large retail store single-use plastic bags. Although most of this transition was out of the hands of the consumer, our transition to a more sustainable future very much is. Manufacturing plants were set up by the company across the US and Europe. Several million tonnes of debris end up in the world’s oceans every year, and much of it is improperly discarded plastic litter. Since the mid 1980s, the use of plastic bags (or poly bags) in numerous applications has become quite common. So much so, several leading grocery chains, such as Kroger and Safeway, began replacing their paper bags with plastic shopping bags. This is the most common way that plastic bags end up creating a Some even saw art in them. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Unfortunately, we are now paying the price with environmental degradation and the health implications that result. 1965 – The one-piece polyethylene shopping bag is patented by the Swedish company Celloplast. Every item in the picture, they claim, would take 40-hours to clean, “except that no housewife need bother.” Just use once, and then throw it away. The problem with plastic that wasn’t considered at the time, is its impact on our environment and how that inevitably impacts us. Celluloid . $10.99 $ 10. Polythene's story: The accidental birth of plastic bags We can thank a chance discovery by a German scientist for the carriers that have become the scourge of modern life. Here is an amusing skit: This led to the company being split up in the 1990s. However, these bags were used in industrial processes, particularly for composite construction. Polyethylene (the most common type of plastic used for disposable bags) was first created in 1898 but it was not until the mid 1950s that a high-density polyethylene was invented. The History of Plastic: The Invention of Throwaway Living by Bill ... as well as paper cups and frozen food containers, plastic cutlery, and trash bags. When plastic costs go up, restaurants give you paperboard containers. In the 1980s, the marketing, perfecting, and manufacturing of plastic bags reached massive heights, with companies such as Capitol Poly, Houston Poly Bag, and the Dixie Bag Company playing instrumental roles. Basic supply & demand. Rutan Poly Industries, Inc. Also, plastic bags encouraged waste. 1965 –  The plastic bag we use today is invented by the Swedish company Celloplast. It wasn’t all about cheaper, stronger bags, and evil capitalist merchants. Now you it seems like you can’t buy anything without it being carried out in a branded plastic bag. Posted June 30, 2015 by Rutan Poly. Now that we understand the impact of our disposable bag use, it’s up to us to find and use alternatives. the first plastic bag. Celloplast, which consisted of folding, wielding and die-cutting a tube of plastic. Baekeland had been searching for a synthetic substitute for shellac, a natural electrical insulator, to meet the needs of the rapidly electrifying United States. In Australia, the furore du jour is banning plastic bags, where much of the country lags behind Botswana, Tanzania, and the state of South Australia, which abandoned them in … Since we’ve become so used to the convenience of plastic bags, you may find this change a little bit inconvenient. I have a question, did the environmentalists applaud the use of plastic bags because it saved the trees? I’ll take a look and consider updating the post. Industry won’t do it without government regulation. In 1907 Leo Baekeland invented Bakelite, the first fully synthetic plastic, meaning it contained no molecules found in nature. 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