Each July 12th, we recognize the significance of an invention that we take for granted on Paper Bag Day. Millions of people use paper bags every day. Readily recyclable, paper bags have been around for many years.
- American inventor, Francis Wolle, received credit for his patent of the first paper bag machine in 1852.
- Margaret E. Knight became known as “the mother of the grocery bag” after she designed the square, flat bottom, and the machine that would fold and paste them in 1870.
- Help reduce anxiety when hyperventilating – Cover nose and mouth with the open end of the paper sack and fill the bag with your breath. Breath in and out until breathing becomes normal again.
- Serve popcorn – When making a large amount of popcorn for a group, serve popcorn in small size paper bags. The paper bags also absorb any oil used to season the popcorn so the treat will be less messy.
- Arts and crafts – Paper bags make great puppets, masks, and windsocks. Get decorating with your kids and have fun while doing it, too!
- Gift bags – Recycle and make gift bags. Whether you give homebaked goodies or another thoughtful gift, your gift bag may steal the show.
- Ripen fruit – Don’t wait for green fruit to ripen. Put it in a paper bag and fold the top. This traps the ethylene gas given off by the fruit, which helps it to mature. Want them to ripen even faster? Put an apple in there, too.
- Paper bags are almost 100% recyclable and can decompose within just a month.
- A paper bag can hold around 10-14 items and are quite sturdy.
- It takes less energy to manufacture paper bags as compared to plastic bags.
- Paper bags are safer for pets, other animals.
- Plastic bags are made from petroleum. It’s something all of us know subconsciously, but you might be shocked to know just how MUCH we use to make plastic bags: an estimated 12 million barrels of oil used each year in the United States alone!
- A trillion plastic bags are used around the world each year.
- The average Australian uses 170 plastic bags every year. 150 million of these end up as litter, only 3% of them are currently being recycled and 200,000 bags are dumped in landfills every hour.
- In China, 3 billion single-use plastic bags are used every day.
- Worldwide, about 2 million plastic bags are used every minute.
- The average time that a plastic bag is used for is… twelve minutes.
- Around 14 grocery items can be held in a standard paper bag, whereas a plastic bag can only hold around 10.
- Plastic bags are recycled only 1% of the time, whereas Paper Bags are recycled 20% more than a standard poly bag.
- At the point when paper packs were first made, their size was measured by the amount of bags of sugar they could hold.
- Over 44% of all seabirds have ingested or become entangled in plastic
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