World Plastic Bag Free Day: History Of The Notorious Plastic Bags

July 3 is celebrated world wide as international plastic bag free day. This day aims to spread awareness and find alternatives to the life consuming plastics. Here is a brief history of this maniac.

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Even though plastic bags are so convenient to use, they can take up to 500 years to disintegrate. They make up a large portion of what stays in our landfills and pollutes our waterways.

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In 1933, polyethylene, the most commonly used plastic, was invented by accident at a chemical plant in Northwich, England.

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While polyethylene had been created in small batches before, this was the first synthesis of the material that was industrially practical, and it was initially used in secret by the British military during World War 2.

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By 1965, Celloplast, a swedish company patented this product. Designed by engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin, the plastic bag quickly replaced cloth and other materials in Europe.

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Plastic bags were introduced to the US in 1979, after conquering much of Europe's market.

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It wasn’t until 1997 that sailor and researcher Charles Moore discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the largest of several gyres in the world’s oceans where immense amounts of plastic waste have accumulated, threatening marine life.

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Bangladesh become the first country in the world to ban thin plastic bags in 2002 after it was found that plastic bags played a key role in clogging drainage systems during disastrous floods. Other countries quickly followed suit, such as South Africa, Rwanda, China, Australia and Italy.

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International plastic bag free day is a part of the Break Free from Plastic Movement, which began in September 2016, and has been joined by nearly 1,500 different organizations. It looks for safer alternatives to demonstrate that a world without the use of so much plastic is possible.

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