1 awesome simple bag versus 1 tough virus

Who would have imagined a simple single use plastic grocery bag playing a possible role in helping to squash the number of people getting infected with the COVID19 virus? When the virus first raised its ugly head on Dec. 31, 2019, while everyone was preparing to welcome 2020, it was preparing to wage a devastating yet silent war on the world.

Considering all of the advancements in computer modeling and the devastation that  CV19 was supposed to have; what was it that played a role in making the virus have more of whimper than a roar? Was it the social distancing, the lack of public interaction or maybe it really was the strength of using a straightforward “Thank You” to-go bag to allow people to still acquire food and have a sense of normalcy in the simple joy of a meal “out”.

While people may have been eating their favorite hamburger or Mexican food in the front seat of their car or the comfort of their home the virus was very likely kept at bay from both the customer and the employee because the bag allowed the transfer of food and the business to still function without the transmission of the Coronavirus.

An unprecedented number of students from kindergarten to grade 12 were able to benefit by receiving subsidized breakfasts and lunches through the school systems. Any number of the heads of education may well provide the same answer, when asked, “how did workers distribute all those meals to families of students that had come to depend on those different provisions?”

You may hear an answer like “Using plastic grocery bags. Those bags helped provide both the social distancing and the organization needed to handle such a daunting task.” Just because schools shuttered their facilities in short order didn’t mean that the food that was already stored there or in transit was going to be able to withstand the same time period. It had to be consumed or contribute to an unprecedented amount of unnecessary waste.

Many people may not be aware that plastic T-shirt bags, as they are more commonly referred to in the flexible packaging industry, come in as many different pre-printed sizes bag thicknesses and print styles as they do unprinted.

As a vitally necessary business, International Plastics has played a pivotal role during COVID-19 in supplying not only specimen shield bags to medical facilities for COVID-19 testing but almost just as important in supplying single use plastic grocery bags that have helped to keep the economy moving and people healthy.

Who knows they very well could be responsible for having played one of the key roles in stopping or at least dramatically slowing the spread of the disease? Which in turn allowed scientist and labs the necessary time table for proper testing, experimentation and results to find a vaccine. While the cure is not quite in our grasp at the moment, the extra amount of time that we have been able to incur may have just been the thing that we need to find the answer to COVID-19.

So, when you go to grab that single use plastic grocery bag the next time you are ready to get that to-go order from your old standby or brand new favorite eating establishment you very well be plucking not only your favorite double ½ pounder with cheese and chili but you might just be holding in your hands the very reason that the Coronavirus didn’t quite have the teeth that it was expected to have.

                                  

About the Author:

Roger Throckmorton Chief Brand Officer at International Plastics