12th July Paper Bag Day

Paper Bag Day 2022: It is celebrated on 12 July annually to make people aware of the pollution caused due to plastic and the serious threat that it poses to the natural environment. Plastic waste takes thousands of years to decompose. Therefore, it is important to understand the ill effects of single-use plastic bags.

Paper bags are made from renewable raw materials, are recyclable and biodegradable.

In 1852, an American inventor, Francis Wolle, established the first paper bag machine. Further in 1871, Margaret E. Knight designed another machine that can produce flat-bottom paper bags. She became famous and came to be known as "the mother of the grocery bag". In 1883, Charles Stilwell invented the machine that can produce square-bottom paper bags with pleated sides making them easier to fold and store. In 1912, Walter Deubener used a cord to reinforce paper bags and add carrying handles. Over the years, several inventors came and improve the production of paper bags.

One of Margaret Knight's best known inventions is a machine that could make flat-bottomed paper bags of the kind used in American grocery stores. Her invention meant that the bags could be produced efficiently and as a result they became hugely popular. 
Interestingly, when Knight went to patent her invention she found that someone else had got there first - a man, she had shown the invention to named Charles Annan tried to steal Knight's idea and receive credit for the patent. Knight did not let him get away with it. She proved that the invention was hers and won the patent.

Margaret Knight wrote in a letter to a friend, "As a child I never cared for things that girls usually do; dolls never possessed any charms for me…the only things I wanted were a jack-knife, a gimlet, and pieces of wood. My friends were horrified. I was called a tomboy; but that made little impression on me. I sighed sometimes because I was not like other girls; but wisely concluded that I couldn’t help it and sought further consolation from my tools. I was always making things for my brothers: did they want anything in the line of playthings, they always said, “Mattie will make them for us.” I was famous for my kites; and my sleds were the envy of all the boys in town" Source

If you want to know more about Margaret Knight or if you want your female students to feel inspired about STEM, read:

• Marvellous Mattie by Emily Arnold McCully

• Margaret Knight: Girl Inventor by Marlene Tang Brill

• In the Bag! Margaret Knight Wraps It Up by Monica Kulling

• Margaret Knight and the Paper Bag  by Virginia Loh-Hagan

If you just want to read about paperbags for fun, try:

• One Little Bag: An Amazing Journey by Henry Cole

• The Paperbag Princess  by Robert Munsch

Paper Bag Princess Day was held on Saturday, March 5, 2022

• Baghead by Jarrett J. Krosoczka

• Courage Hats by Kate Hoefler

I don't know this book, Benjamin Brody's Backyard Bag but even without owning the book its premise would make a great activity to do with a group of children. In this story Benjamin conducts a playful experiment to find out how many things he can do with an empty paper bag.