Plastic Packaging Facts history

1959: The first licensed character lunch box was created by Geuder, Frey, and Paeschke of Wisconsin.

1965 – The one-piece polyethylene shopping bag is patented by the Swedish company Celloplast.

But it became apparent that the bags could do much more, and Ziploc® bags were introduced in 1968 as food storage bags.The first baggies and sandwich bags on a roll were introduced

Mobil Chemical began producing their own plastic bags in 1976.

In 1977, the plastic bag was introduced to the grocery industry as an alternative to the paper bag—something we’re trying to revert back to 40-plus years later.

1979 – Already controlling 80 per cent of the bag market in Europe plastic bags begin to spread to the United States and other countries around the world.

1982: Grocery chains Kroger and Safeway replace their paper bags with plastic

jericl cat on Flickr.com By the end of 1985, 75% of supermarkets offered plastic bags as an option to their customers, but most still preferred paper versions.

1988 R.W. Rogers Company By 1988, 40% of grocery bags in the United States were made from plastic.

At the time of McDonald’s decision to eliminate styrofoam in 1990 plastic waste was at 13 million tons.

Walter Soroka, Fundamentals of Packaging Technology, Second Edition, 2000, published by the Institute of Packaging Professionals

Instead, they said they “helped“ recycle 425 million bottles and cans since 2001.” Sounds impressive.

2002 – Bangladesh is the first country in the world to implement a ban on thin plastic bags, after it was found they played a key role in clogging drainage systems during disastrous flooding.

2007 San Francisco banned single-use plastic bags in 2007.

In 2008, Starbucks committed to reducing the waste they “sent to landfills” by 50%. They also promised to cut one billion plastic straws yearly.

Clapp, J. (2009, September 24). Doing away with plastic shopping bags: International patterns of norm emergence and policy implementation.

2010: Heinz Dip & Squeeze was the first innovation for ketchup packaging in 42 years, allowing customers to choose whether to dispense or dip into the sauce.

2011 – Worldwide, one million plastic bags are consumed every minute.

When the levy was introduced in Northern Ireland back in 2013, usage dropped by 71% in just one year.

California became the first state to ban single-use plastic bags in 2014.

Poly, R. (2015, June 30). The History of Plastic Bags.

In 2016, the petrochemical industry used the equivalent of 17.4 million barrels of oil per day, which is just under 20% of global oil consumption.

Adler, B. (2017, June 03). Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? Not So Fast.

2018 – As of July 2018, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) finds that 127 out of 192 countries reviewed have enacted some form of national legislation to address the problem of plastic bags.

Najihah, A. (2019, October 30). Plastic bags were invented by this Swedish engineer to replace paper bags and save the forests-he expected us to reuse the plastic bags.

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