- 1852 Francis Wolle patented in the United States, and later in France and England, a machine that he devised for making paper bags. It was the first of its kind, and covers the fundamental principle of the many similar machines that are now used.
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| Trees cut for pulp mill, Fort McMurray Greg Halinda Photography |
- 1957 The first baggies and sandwich bags on a roll were introduced.
- 1958 Poly dry cleaning bags competed with traditional brown paper.
- 1966 Plastic bag packaging took over 25 to 30 percent of the market.
- 1966 Plastic produce bags on a roll were introduced in grocery stores.
- 1969 The New York City Sanitation Department's "New York City Experiment" demonstrated that plastic refuse bag curbside pickup was cleaner, safer and quieter than metal trash can pick-up, beginning a shift to plastic can liners among consumers.
- 1974/75 Retailing giants such as Sears, J.C. Penney, Montgomery Ward, Jordan Marsh, Allied, Federated and Hills made the switch to plastic merchandise bags.
- 1973 The first commercial system for manufacturing plastic grocery bags became operational
- 1977 The plastic grocery bag was introduced to the supermarket industry as an alternative to paper sacks.
- 1982 Kroger and Safeway started to replace traditional craft sacks with polyethylene "t-shirt" bags.
- 1990 The first blue bag recycling program began with kerbside collection.
- 1990 Consumer plastic bag recycling began through a supermarket collection-site network.
- 1996 Four of five grocery bags used are plastic.
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| Greg Halinda Photography |
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| Blue Q Paper or Plastic Neither bag is made from recycled grain bags and will hold 40 lbs. Photo Greg Halinda Photography |
