Where Do Paper Bags Come From? Let’s Have a Close Look!

Paper bags have been a shopping staple for hundreds of years. Brown paper bags, white paper bags, paper bags with handles or without, and numerous different types of paper bags have become part of our regular routines without us even realizing it. Have you ever thought about when paper bag printing first came into use? In this article, we will discuss the answer to the question, “Where do paper bags come from?”.

Where Do Paper Bags Come From?

Let’s discuss the history of paper bags and paper bag printing in detail.

The Envelope Style Paper Bag

The first ever paper bag was said to be introduced in 1852. Teacher Francis Wolle and his brother invented the first machine to efficiently manufacture flat, envelope-style paper bags. They patented the machine and afterwards founded the Union Paper Bag Company.  

The invention of a machine that could efficiently manufacture bags was a colossal stepping stone in the widespread use of paper bag printing. However, these bags were extremely simplistic, flat, and couldn't hold a wide assortment of items. 

The Flat-Bottomed Paper Bag

In 1871, inventor Margaret E. Knight designed a machine that could make flat-bottomed paper bags, which could convey more than the past envelope-style design. She found a new line of work working at the Columbia Paper Bag company in Springfield, Massachusetts.

She started to try different things with machine designs that could take care of, cutting and folding the paper automatically into a flat-bottom paper bag. Before this invention, flat-bottomed paper bags were thought of as "artisanal" and were rare. 

Whenever she had constructed a working model of her automatic paper-folding machine, Knight submitted for a patent on her creation. Knight was met with difficulty because of a copycat who attempted to claim her design as his own, but Knight at last won her rightful patent after prosecution.  

Not very many women held patents around then, and her strength and persistence to claim her design was revered for women's rights.

The SOS Style Paper Bag

These bags would stand upright all alone when opened making them simple to stack. The bag machine trademarked by Charles Stilwell in 1883 to make these bags was a unique advantage for paper bag creation. These bags were the inspiration for what later formed into dealt with paper shopping bags. SOS-style paper bags are also still broadly used today for drug stores, food administration, and supermarkets.

How are Paper Bags Manufactured?

While the process of making paper bags today has progressed from Wolle's original plans, the principle remains to a great extent the equivalent. Paper bags are made on enormous machines and for each 1 paper bag delivered, 1 gallon of water is required. The process of manufacturing a paper bag begins with paper pulp, which is essentially thin shavings of wood from trees. 

The paper pulp comes from trees that have been dried for something like three years. The dried tree husk is stripped, cut into 1-inch strips and then cooked into pulp using intense tension and intensity. 

The paper pulp is then squeezed into level sheets or moves of paper. These sheets and moves will be sliced to estimate (for the most part two times the necessary level of the finished paper bag) and then collapsed over. The two equal open sides will be stuck together either by pressing the stuck sides together or through heating and pressing.

When complete you'll have a straightforward level paper bag (like the kind you could get from a sweet shop). If you have any desire to make a more complicated plan, for example, a level-bottomed bag, you follow a similar process but just include more perplexing folds along the bottom of the bag in the request for the finished paper bag to stand up. Paper bag handles are made independently and fastened with a stick.

What are Paper Bags Made Of?

You might think you already know the response to this inquiry, paper “Where do paper bags come from?”, isn't that so? 

Indeed, in fact, yes but depending on the style, plan and use of the function of paper bags, different kinds of paper can be used. Standard brown paper bags are made using kraft paper which can come in any tone (creating hued paper bags). You can also make paper bags using laminated kraft paper. This makes bags that have a plastic coating on the inside to prevent moisture from soaking through the paper, an especially good thought for food packaging. 

Paper bags made using kraft paper can be any tone, not simply brown, and any weight. Brown paper bags are made using 60gsm paper and can come in a wide assortment of sizes.

As we become more eco-cognizant, paper bags can also be made using recycled kraft paper, for the most part, areas of strength for using kraft paper, for a sustainable packaging solution. These days, paper bags are manufactured using a fusion of crude and recycled paper.

Adding Handles to Paper Bags

In 1912, Walter Deubener, a food merchant in Saint Paul, Minnesota, saw that his buyers were having a tough time carrying their basic food items home with existing bag choices. He tested by punching openings in a standard paper sack and threading the string through the openings to make handles. By 1915, they were selling over 1,000,000 bags each year.

In 1949 the Interstate Bag Organization made a machine that could productively join handles to paper shopping bags.

How are Paper Bags Disposed Of?

The incredible thing about the function of paper bags is that disposing of them is fast, simple and in particular, environmentally friendly. 

There are three vital ways of disposing of paper bags:

  • Recycling
  • Composting
  • Reusing 

To recycle a standard paper bag, the paper will be destroyed, bubbled and turned around into paper pulp. This will then be carried out into new pieces of paper and the manufacturing process begins again. If you have any desire to dispose of your paper bags yourself then one of the main ways you can do so is using composting.  

Whenever you've set up your compost bin with a garden squander and compostable waste (for example kitchen scraps) you can begin adding materials like paper. You don't necessarily in every case need to dispose of paper bags immediately. Providing they haven't torn or been harmed, you can reuse paper bags on various occasions before recycling or composting them. 

If you select to reuse your paper bags then you don't simply need to reuse them in their original form. While you can continue to use them as a packaging source until they are at this point not usable, you can also use the paper for protecting sensitive bundles and lining household things like pet plates.

The Importance of Paper Shopping Bags

Paper bags made life simpler for many individuals in the following ways.

Transforming the Shopping Experience

Parents could now send their children to school with 'brown bag' snacks. Individuals could transport their food and buy things home without any problem. Retailers could give their customers a better shopping experience by providing utilitarian paper bags to convey their goods home. These advances in the large-scale manufacturing of paper shopping bags eventually prompted retail businesses to use bags for marketing and branding purposes.

Branding Paper Bags

By the 1950s, retailers were giving paper bags away for free for shoppers to convey down the street and saw the marketing chance. Many retail locations complemented their bags with their logos or mark tones to assist with promoting their branding.

Carrying a branded shopping bag down the street became a significant assertion and superficial point of interest. Shoppers soon became intermediaries for marketing as they conveyed branded shopping bags down the street for other buyers to see. 

Bloomingdale's retail chain is one of the significant symbols of paper shopping bag branding. They debuted their 'Huge Brown Bag' in 1973, planned by Massimo Vignelli. Bloomingdale's has since made numerous notable and significant plans for their bags, using cutting-edge fine art and marketing thoughts.

Why Use Paper Bags Over Plastic?

Now that you’ve got an answer to “Where do paper bags come from?”, it’s time to discuss why you should use them instead of plastic bags.  

Paper bags can be used for a wide range of purposes including carrying food or things you've purchased when shopping, carrying your stuffed lunch or even for giving gifts. Besides the fact that they have many uses as of late many individuals have effectively chosen to use paper bags over plastic other options. 

We realise that paper bags are significantly more eco-friendly than plastic ones, but precisely for what reason should you use paper bags over plastic?

Paper bags are biodegradable not normal for plastic other options.

While plastic bags will sit on the world's surface for many years, paper bags will biodegrade and transform into regular manure for plants and trees.

Paper bags don't top off the oceans.

As plastic bags are disposed of they will often advance into our oceans and sea beds. Plastic bags in the oceans can cause a variety of issues like choking creatures and contaminating the water and beds.

Paper bags are non-toxic.

One of the greatest issues with plastic bags is that they are made from toxic waste-producing fossils. Studies have shown that certain types of plastic and plastic bags can release harmful chemicals.

Paper bags are completely emission-free.

Since paper bags are mainly made using recycled paper these days, the process of creating them uses less transportation which in turn implies less emissions.

Where Can I Buy Brown Paper Bags?

As we hope to make moves to become more sustainable and eco-friendly, no surprise an ever-increasing number of individuals are looking for paper bags. Fortunately, paper bags are readily accessible for procurement, including here from Jet Paper Bags. At Jet Paper Bags, we produce the highest-quality paper bags and sleeves for bakery, patisserie, and other uses.

Where Do Paper Bags Come From?: Conclusion

In this article, we discussed the answer to the question “Where do paper bags come from?”. These are not only biodegradable but also super sustainable. No doubt why they should be replaced with harmful plastic materials as soon as possible!

The best paper bags are manufactured by Jet Paper Bags. Biodegradable, sustainable and recyclable, you can be guaranteed that our paper bags use unquestionably the highest quality materials and manufacturing processes. For more information on our paper bags and finding the most sustainable solution for you, our experts are present 24*7 to help. You can contact us here to learn more about our paper bag printing and manufacturing.