Plastic shopping bag facts for kids
A German plastic shopping bag with the phrase Obst macht fit! (Fruit makes you fit!). Before use (left) and after use (right), 2011
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 A woman (left) holding a composite plastic shopping bag, Hungary, 1947. Image from the Fortepan archives
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.jpg) A Channel Islands Co-operative Society plastic bag from 1999
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| Classification | Plastic bag |
|---|---|
| Uses | Container |
| Inventor | Sten Gustaf Thulin |
Plastic shopping bags are lightweight containers made from different types of plastic. People around the world have used them since the 1960s. You might hear them called "carrier bags" or "plastic grocery bags."
Sometimes, people call them "single-use" bags. This means they are meant to carry items from a store to your home. However, these bags are often strong enough to be used many times. In the past, some stores even gave rewards to customers who reused their bags. Even after shopping, people commonly reuse these bags for storage or as trash bags. Many modern plastic shopping bags can now be recycled or composted. In recent years, many countries have created laws to limit plastic bags. This helps reduce littering and plastic pollution in our environment.
Some reusable shopping bags are also made from plastic materials, like plastic film or fabric.
Contents
The History of Plastic Shopping Bags
The idea for plastic shopping bags started in the early 1950s. However, these early designs were more complex. They had handles attached in a separate step. The modern, lightweight plastic shopping bag was invented by a Swedish engineer named Sten Gustaf Thulin.
In the early 1960s, Thulin found a way to make a simple, strong bag. He used a single piece of plastic, folding and cutting it. His company, Celloplast of Norrköping, Sweden, patented this design in 1965. Thulin believed these durable plastic bags would be used many times. He thought they could replace paper bags, which require cutting down trees.
Celloplast held a special patent that gave them a near-monopoly on making these bags. They built factories across Europe and in the US. But other companies wanted to make them too. In 1977, the US company Mobil successfully challenged Celloplast's patent in the US.
This opened the door for other companies. In the 1980s, firms like Dixie Bag Company started making plastic bags. Large grocery chains like Kroger and Safeway began using plastic bags instead of paper bags in 1982.
Without its special patent, Celloplast's business declined. The company eventually split up in the 1990s. However, the original factory site in Norrköping still makes plastic products today. It is now the home of Miljösäck, a company that makes waste sacks from recycled polyethylene.
From the mid-1980s, plastic bags became very common. People used them daily to carry groceries from stores to their homes. As plastic bags replaced paper bags, and other plastics replaced materials like glass and metal, there was a big discussion about packaging materials. Plastic shopping bags were a central part of these discussions.
In 1992, Sonoco Products Company created an improved design. They patented the "self-opening polyethylene bag stack." This clever design allows one bag to open the next when pulled from a stack. This makes them very convenient for grocery stores and customers.
How Plastic Bags Are Made
It's hard to know exactly how many plastic bags are used worldwide. However, experts estimate that hundreds of billions of plastic bags are used every year. For example, in 2009, over 100 billion plastic bags were used in the United States alone.
Materials and Manufacturing Process
Most traditional plastic bags are made from a material called polyethylene. Polyethylene is made from long chains of ethylene units. Ethylene comes from natural gas and petroleum. The polyethylene used in shopping bags is usually either low-density or high-density. Manufacturers often add colors and other ingredients to the plastic.
Plastic shopping bags are commonly made using a process called blown film extrusion. In this method, melted plastic is pushed through a circular die. This creates a thin, continuous tube of plastic film. This tube is then inflated like a balloon and stretched upwards. Once cooled, it is flattened and cut to make bags.
Biodegradable and Compostable Bags
Some newer bags are made from plant-based materials called bioplastics. These bags can break down naturally over time. This helps prevent them from building up in landfills and harming the environment. Other bags are made from special types of polyethylene that can degrade. Some are made from polylactic acid (PLA), which comes from lactic acid.
However, most degradable bags do not break down easily in sealed landfills. They can also cause problems if mixed with regular plastic recycling. Generally, biodegradable plastic bags need to be recycled or composted separately.
Biodegradable plastics are materials that living organisms, like bacteria, can break down. There are two main kinds:
- Bioplastics: These are made from renewable materials, like plants. Many of them can biodegrade.
- Plastics with special additives: These are made from traditional petrochemicals. They have ingredients that help them break down faster, sometimes with the help of sunlight.
Environmental Impact of Plastic Bags
Plastic bags are very strong and last a long time. This durability is a big concern for our environment. They do not break down easily and can be very harmful to wildlife. Every year, millions of plastic shopping bags are thrown away improperly. They end up as plastic waste and litter in nature.
The same features that made plastic bags popular—their light weight and resistance to breaking down—also cause environmental problems. Because they are so durable, plastic bags can take hundreds of years to decompose. Some estimates suggest it can take 500 to 1,000 years for a plastic shopping bag to break down completely. Yet, a bag's typical use-life is only about 12 minutes.
On land, plastic bags are a very common type of litter. Large amounts of plastic bags can block drainage systems. This can lead to flooding, as happened in Bangladesh in 1988 and 1998. It also happens almost every year in Manila. Litter is often a bigger problem in developing countries. These places may not have as many resources for trash collection.
In 2009, only about 13% of the one trillion single-use plastic bags produced were recycled. The rest were thrown away. Because they are so light, many end up blowing into the environment from landfills.
The huge number of plastic grocery bags thrown away each year is hard to imagine. This is why finding solutions to this growing problem is so important. Banning plastic bags is one idea. However, some people argue that this makes things harder for businesses and customers. Alternatives like cloth grocery bags exist. But some government studies have found that cloth bags can have a higher carbon footprint in their production. Interestingly, some states have passed laws to prevent cities from banning plastic bags.
Studies between 2002 and 2005 found many plastic bags floating in the ocean around southern Chile. They are a significant part of marine debris.
Despite their environmental problems, some government studies have found plastic bags to be an environmentally friendly option for carrying items. For example, Recyc-Quebec, a Canadian agency, noted that plastic bags use little material and energy to produce. They also have a high reuse rate (77.7%) when used as garbage bags. Studies from Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Clemson University have reached similar conclusions.
A global survey in 2022 found that 75% of people want single-use plastics banned. This percentage was up from 71% in 2019. Also, 82% of people now prefer products with less plastic packaging, up from 75%.
Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling Plastic Bags
Most regular curbside recycling programs do not accept plastic shopping bags. Even though they are made of similar plastics to bottles, they cause problems. The machines that sort plastics are designed for hard items. Plastic bags often get tangled in the equipment. They can also be mistaken for paper, which then contaminates paper recycling.
However, plastic bags are 100% recyclable! They just need to be taken to special collection points. These are usually found at grocery stores or large retail chains.
Some big store chains have stopped using plastic shopping bags. Examples include Whole Foods in the U.S. and IKEA in the U.S. and the U.K.
Stronger plastic shopping bags can be reused many times as reusable shopping bags. Lighter bags are often reused as trash bags or for picking up pet waste. All types of plastic shopping bags can be recycled into new bags if there are good collection systems.
By the mid-2000s, recycling efforts in the United States led to a 7% annual rate of plastic bag recycling. In 2007 alone, over 800 million pounds of bags and plastic film were recycled. Recycling one ton of plastic bags saves the energy equal to 11 barrels of oil.
According to the UK's Environment Agency, 76% of British carrier bags are reused. A survey by the American Plastics Counsel found that 90% of Americans reuse plastic shopping bags in their homes.
Laws About Plastic Bags
As of August 2018, more than 160 countries, regions, and cities had laws about plastic bags. These laws either banned them or added a fee to reduce their use. Some countries, like China in 2008, completely banned very thin plastic bags. Other countries charge a small tax when you buy a plastic bag.
See also
In Spanish: Bolsa ecológica para niños
- Photodegradation, how chemicals break down when exposed to light
Images for kids
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Plastic bag in the sea
