Oops, Here's A Poly Bag For You

At the end of the 19th century, German scientist Hans von Pechmann created something

he never could have imagined to be the most widely used and controversial material in the world. Von Pechman found a waxy residue at the bottom of his test tube after an experiment, the material to later be called as polythene. Without this accidental creation that von Pechmann made that day in 1899, the world would not have poly bags. Poly bags are so widely used that at every single second, 1 million plastic bags are used worldwide every minute. Without polythene, the material von Pechmann made, also the main component in poly bags, the world would not have newspaper bags, bread bags, poly mailers, or anything else with polythene.

According to an article in The Independent, von Pechmann's experiment was buried back in 1899. It wasn't for another 34 years until the people who are now officially credited for the invention of polythene that took a chance on it. Then, in 2008, polythene celebrated its 75th anniversary. Imagine what the world would be like without poly bags...scary thought, I know.

Associated with the use of poly bags is a controversial and ongoing environment debate. But here's a quote that really put the debate into a logical perspective.

"If you're going to have a bag, you're much better having a polyethylene bag than any other material because of the amount of energy that goes into their manufacture; which is minimal. And they can be recycled. It's not the fault of the product that things are dumped in large quantities at sea." Philip Law, a director of British Plastics Federation argues.

The use of tote bags has become widely popular, but the amount of energy it takes to produce one of them is far greater than the amount of energy needed to make a poly bag. Users of tote bags often do not reuse the product enough for it to balance out the amount of energy consumed in the production of bag itself, so Mr. Law seems to be right on point.

So, listen to the man. Recycle your poly bags; von Pechmann worked hard to make the product accessible for you (sort of). Go out and buy those useful self seal bags, tape bags, wicketed bags, and die cut handle bags, you'll definitely going to find something to use them for. Stick some newspapers in some poly bags, stick rolls of bread in some bread bags, mail some stuff out in poly mailers. I'm sure Von Pechmann did.

by: Mark Etinger

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