If it’s good enough for Julie Andrews…
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with string
These are a few of my favorite things.
The Sound of Music
Just like Julie Andrews singing to the Von Trapp children, brown paper bags and brown wrapping paper (whether tied up with string or not) evoke fond memories of times gone by and the sorts of things they don’t do like they used to. You won’t find anyone in any musical at any time singing in praise of plastic carrier bags.
As has been discussed elsewhere on this blog, Davpack’s early years were centred on the production and supply of paper bags to local traders. In those not so distant days, that was all that was available for shopkeepers to use.
Barely twenty years later, times had changed and there was hardly a paper bag to be found.
The rise and fall of the plastic carrier bag
The plastic shopping bag as we know it today was invented in the late 1960s, but it wasn’t until 1982 that it started to become the main means of packing food and groceries in supermarkets and shops. At its height, it is estimated that somewhere between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags were being used worldwide each year.
The environmental impact was enormous. The polythene from which the bags are made derives from natural gas, an increasingly precious resource. And what had started out as a positive – they were cheap and durable – had by then become a negative; because they were cheap, they were usually just thrown away (despite being recyclable), and because they were durable, once they had been thrown away…well, they endured.
Today, although the plastic bag is still very much around, its use has greatly reduced. Many of those that are used are biodegradable carrier bags. Other solutions, such as fabric ‘bags for life’ have also been introduced. But there’s one thing that we’ve noticed in particular, and that is that brown paper bags are making a big comeback.
Kraft work
Good brown paper packaging doesn’t just work on a nostalgia level. Especially if it’s made from a quality bit of kraft paper, it also feels reassuringly strong and reliable. Add the fact that its environmental credentials are pretty impressive as well, and it’s not hard to see why there’s been such a huge resurgence in its popularity.
Here at Davpack, we sell brown paper packaging products in many forms, not least the kind of brown kraft paper rolls and sheets that evoked such strong emotions in Julie Andrews and which are ideal for wrapping up packages and being tied up with string.
There are also numerous forms of brown paper shopping bags, including the envelope style bags all greengrocers used to provide (and which are far better for the vegetables than polythene bags!), paper bags with handles and, among my list of favourite things, block bottom bags.
All our brown paper retail and protective packaging supplies are available quickly and cheaply from stock. Call now on 0844 800 9844 or visit our website and join the nostalgia revolution!
Dave Smith
Latest posts by Dave Smith (see all)
- An environmental guide to plastic carrier bags - 22nd June 2015
- Millimetres and litres: a guide to choosing the right sized box - 11th June 2015
- The Davpack Christmas Sale – There’s More! - 12th November 2014