It has been completely replaced by duck tape. Likewise, bubble wrap is also a comparatively new arrival in the moving supplies arena, but has been immensely popular ever since its arrival. Supplies for tying boxes are the indispensable spices necessary to season moving boxes to make them fit for users consumption. Boxes for moving and shifting goods are not a new phenomenon, having been around for quite some time. But if boxes are looking more efficient and elegant with every changing season, it is because the moving supplies that complement them are evolving at a rather furious pace.
In its earlier incarnations, moving boxes were tied with ropes made of hemp, jute, coir, sisal or other natural fibers, and the fact made these ropes the most important item of moving supplies. These natural fiber ropes were replaced later by ropes made of synthetic fibers like nylon, polypropylene etc. Ropes did a fine job, because they doubled as handles for carrying the boxes as well, which is an appendage that the present day boxes lack.
However, at some stage, rope lost its throne to the quaintly named duck tape as the most important moving supplies ingredient. Duck tape is a tape with pressure sensitive adhesive on one side. It has strong adhesion ability and wide duck tapes can withstand reasonable weight also. Duck tape is waterproof as well, and this characteristic is believed to have caused this moving supplies item to be named after the aquatic bird. An alternative name is duct tape.
Duck tapes are available in several colors these days and carton sealing tapes which are the color of moving boxes, or are transparent, are the ones more popular among moving supplies. These have evolved so much that duck tapes are now available with the words ‘fragile’ or ‘check contents’ written boldly over them. Using them saves people the job of writing these things on their boxes in bold.
Bubble wrap, next in the list of moving supplies items, is something that has made its appearance in the packing and moving industry together with the arrival and preponderance of electronic goods. These are sheets of plastic with evenly spaced bubbles all across, and are used for covering sensitive and delicate objects. Depending upon the amount of shock protection and cushioning an object requires; it will be covered with one or more layers of this component. The bubbles that cover the bubble wrap, and have given it its name, can vary in size from 6mm to 26mm. The type of bubble wrap used in moving supplies can vary in quality also. For covering electronic items, anti-static bubble wrap is used.
The bubbles of bubble wrap are filled with air, and make a popping sound when punctured. So bubble wrap lends itself as a toy as well, and children are always eager to play with sheets of bubble wrap. Since the virtual world never allows to be left behind in anything, there are now bubble wrap games all over the Internet that anyone can play. In a way, there are now virtual moving supplies as well!
It can be difficult to figure out the best way to mail fragile items. If you need an item to arrive undamaged, it is important to use the appropriate packaging. Sheets of bubble wrap and foam padding are not always the best option. They are expensive and do not always fit the product snugly.
Frames, photographs and paintings are examples of items that are difficult to protect when shipping. bubble bags will protect delicate items and get them where they need to be.
A bubble wrap bag comes in a wide range of sizes. If one cannot find the appropriate size, people can order them. Custom bags are inexpensive to order and purchase. People can purchase them at any store that sells mail supplies.
A bubble wrap bag uses bubbles of air to cushion and protect fragile items. High-grade bubbles full of air are between the item being transported and the damage that is often associated with shipping. Thin items, such as DVDs fit snugly in the padded envelope and are protected from bumps and dings that happen during shipping.
There is often less waste when people use bubble envelopes in place of traditional packaging material. This cuts shipping and handling when mailing products. Shipping via bubble-padded bags also lessens the number of returns that a company has to deal with due to damaged items.
When in doubt as to the size that one should use, simply use one of the many online calculators that are available. Companies that want to sell bubble packaging have discovered that making it easier for people to find the right size helps to increase their sales. The benefit is that you can utilize this free service but are not obligated to purchase from that website.
The use of bubble bags gives a company one more green incentive to offer their customers. Bubble packaging is environmentally friendly because of the waste reduction. Smaller packages mean less garbage that is sent to landfills.
By Jonathon Blocker
plastic bags are like an invasive species: They are everywhere and have incorporated themselves so much into our ecosystem that they might as well be alive.
Plastic bags at times behave like tumbleweed and at others can be found blooming on trees as large white or tan flowers. Mistaken for jellyfish, millions of marine animals consume plastic bags and die as they become tangled in their intestines.
Plastic bags are also blessed with both a long lifespan (it takes 300 to 1,000 years for one to degrade), and a high birthrate (in Massachusetts three million are used each day).
Currently the Massachusetts Legislature is considering a bill that would reduce the number (an estimated 1.4 billion) of plastic bags Massachusetts uses each year. House Bill 1990, sponsored by Rep. Lori Ehrlich, D-Marblehead, would ban all non-compostable plastic bags in retail stores of 4,000 square feet or more.
Small bodegas and mom-and-pop stores would not be affected, and we would still have bags to line our trash bins and use to pick up our doggy doo. The only plastic bags allowed in big-box stores would be compostable bags that meet ASTM D6400 standards. These bags are indistinguishable from plastic bags to the consumer and biodegrade at rates comparable to other compostable materials. This bill is bipartisan, and well supported with 37 co-sponsors.
The time is now for Massachusetts to take action on plastic bags. Not only are they a ubiquitous eyesore that threaten our wildlife, but they also incur a cost. Although plastic bags appear free to the consumer at check-out, they rack up a price after they leave the trash bin.
The biggest price tag probably comes from cleaning them out of the sewer systems. In Portland, Ore., they estimated that plastic bags cost the city $2.3 million in drain and sewer maintenance.
Just last month, Portland decided to cut those costs and became the latest city to join the ranks of Washington, D.C.; Westport, Conn.; Los Angeles, San Francisco, Nantucket, and many others in passing legislation that discourages the use of plastic bags.
In addition to sewer systems, plastic bags clog up recycling operations. Plastic bags are only recyclable in special plastic-bag-recycling streams, but they make their way into other recycling streams all the same. It is estimated that 20 percent to 30 percent of labor costs at recycling operations are devoted to workers removing plastic bags from the stream and pulling them off of jammed gears.
Let’s stop lying to ourselves that plastic bags are free, and use our tax dollars more efficiently.
Plastic bags also need to be reduced because there is no good way to dispose of them. We can try to recycle them, but the EPA estimates that we perform rather poorly here: Only 5.2 percent of plastic bags are recycled.
Even recycling plastic bags poses many challenges. It takes about $4,000 to recycle a ton of plastic bags, which are then sold on the market for only $32. Once again, getting rid of plastic bags is a money suck.
If we just throw our plastic bags out with the rest of the trash they still get blown away into our streets, trees, gardens, parks and rivers, which have to be cleaned up later.
We need to rethink how we use plastic bags so we can rid ourselves of the invasive species, the eyesore, the hidden cost.
We need more individuals bringing reusable bags to the grocery store. We need letters to our municipal officers and our state representatives saying we want plastic-bag-reducing policies in our cities and state.
Like other communities, we can reduce this pollution with the amount of effort it takes to bring a cloth bag to the store, and save ourselves money at the same time.
• • •
Kathleen Cohen is summer campaign associate at Environment Massachusetts, a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization.
Shoppers seem to be choosing plastic bags over environmental issues, despite a Government-backed campaign to cut their use.
Latest statistics show more shoppers are packing their supermarket purchases into one-use only bags, according to official figures, with around 6.4 billion carrier bags used last year – up on the 6.1 billion of the previous period and going against the trend which has seen a steady fall since 2006.
The 5% rise is disappointing to conservationists.
“It seems like a backward step for the campaign and that is a great shame,” said Phil Knowling, of the conservation charity Living Coasts .
Recycling Minister Lord Henley suggested legislation might be necessary if shops did not cut back on the numbers of single-use bags given out.
“This isn’t good enough,” he said.
“Retailers need to take responsibility and lift their game to cut down on the number of single use carrier bags they hand out.
“If results do not improve we will consider additional measures to make this happen, including legislation.”
But the figures, released by the Government’s waste body Wrap , were termed “encouraging” by the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
“Despite the rise in bag use over the past year, it’s still down 40% overall since 2006 when around 10.7 billion were used,” a spokesman told Sky News Online.
“The rise could be put down to a number of things, including a change in shopping habits – for example more visits to smaller convenience stores.
“It may also be that shoppers are less focused on environmental issues at this moment, because they have other concerns,” he added.
Earlier, Bob Gordon, the consortium’s environment chief, said: “Retailers, working with consumers, will continue to do all they can to drive down the number of carrier bags being given out wherever possible but it’s time to accept bags are not the be-all and end-all of environmental issues.”
He said retailers are now pursuing “much more significant” environmental issues such as energy use, waste and the impact of the products people buy.
“An obsession with carrier bags must not get in the way of these bigger green goals,” he said.
 Solar blankets were first developed for use in space. Solar blanket wraps, better known as space or Mylar blankets, were first created for astronauts in space. The wraps are extremely versatile and can be used for many things, but the main function is to keep the body warm. Solar blankets are made out of a double sided reflective material and generally weigh only 1 1/2 oz. This makes them light and flexible as well as reflective and waterproof.
Keeping Warm
One of the main reasons someone uses a solar blanket is to stay warm. When the body temperature drops, wrapping yourself in one will immediately begin raising your body temperature. Not only will the blanket reflect sunlight, or other light, it will also keep your own body heat under it. This means instead of losing body heat, you’ll start retaining your own so the wrap can work no matter the weather.
Convection/Evaporation
Another reason to use the solar wrap is its ability to reduce evaporation. The wrap is actually able to cut back water evaporation by 95 percent which means your body stays hydrated longer. For this reason, you’ll often see marathoners or other athletes wearing the solar blankets after events if the weather is cold. Not only is it warming their body, it’s maintaining hydration for the athlete and keeping the wind from cooling them even more.
Protection
By reflecting sun, the solar blanket also reflects UV rays away from your body. You’ll feel warm without the risk of burning. Because of this, you can use the blanket as a shelter.
Other Uses
Besides warming the body, solar wraps have many other uses and can be especially useful while camping. If placed on the ground underneath your tent, your tent bottom will never get wet. If it is raining, placing the wrap over dry firewood will protect it for later. Another use is to shine light against the blanket in a small area in order to reflect even more light.
By Stacy McCullough
We are starting the Big Pack prior to returning to Canada. Dianne decided she wanted some bubble wrap. After reviewing the various entries in the school email system and having several conversations with people ”in the know”, she decided she wanted a roll of bubble wrap that was 1.2 meters wide and as long as necessary.
She heard about a wholesale place that had “half a roll”, about 70 meters. This should be more than enough and we could sell the excess to other movers. Now, how to get it from the wholesaler to the boys’ campus apartments? Hmmmmm, ah yes, let’s have Peter go and get it. I spent a couple of hours trying to Google Map the location but had no luck. Sigh.
Armed with instructions in Chinese (including a backup plan of written instructions for cab drivers) outlining what I needed, I was missing only one thing. What do all the students have when they come to ask a question in the office? Oh yes, a friend for moral support. As it was school day, I enlisted the able support of Lesley Dukowski, another non-working spouse who knows lots of Chinese words and can even pronounce some of them properly.
Just before the appointed hour, the skies darkened, the wind rose and it started to rain. Thunder and lightning added to the sense of gloom I felt as we prepared to leave. But half an hour later, the skies cleared and the mission began.
The instructions said: Take the Qinggui to Xiaolubiao (Metro/IKEA) station. Take the 613 bus to Lubo Bridge. Get off the bus and the Lubo plastic Mall is across the street. Go to stall 159 and ask for Miss Xie. How could we go wrong?
As we were leaving the Qinggui station, Lesley commented that she must get her money out. I wondered why she wanted money as you need a card to get off the train. Yikes! I forgot to get some cash from the school ATM! She was already thinking of the bus fare we needed. Luckily, Metro has an ATM and that solved the problem.
Well, solved THAT problem. The new problem was where to find the 613 bus stop, not to mention which direction should we would want to go. After all, we had no idea where this “Lubo Bridge” was. While we were standing at the curb pondering this new situation, a cab pulled up to offer us a lift. This never happens when we are trying to find a cab. I showed him the instructions written in Chinese and he immediately smiled and indicated we should hop in. We did.
In this context, a “bridge” turns out to be a highway interchange. The Xiaolubiao Bridge intersection is so weird that I thought we would use the whole 8 kuai drop charge just getting to the other side. As I had no idea where Lubo Bridge was, I had no idea which way we were going. However, in minutes he pulled up in front of a building and indicated this was the Mall. And the fare was only 11 kuai! Wow!
Not only that, but there was a lady standing there with our bubble wrap! How did they do that? We had told them we would be there about 10:30 but this was indeed service above and beyond. We jumped out of the cab and examined the bubble wrap. It wasn’t quite as advertised and was in two sections. This wasn’t going to be easy to fit into the cab along with
the two of us. After a brief discussion, we discovered she wasn’t “our” lady. She was just some poor gal who was trying to get somewhere with two big packs of bubble wrap and was accosted by two insane foreigners. All she wanted was our cab!
But we were at the right place! We spent a few minutes reconnoitring the area for the 613 bus stop. There it was. And, take about Aha moments, it’s “Lvbo Bridge”, not “Lubo bridge”. No wonder I couldn’t find it! On returning home, I found it is only 3.8 km according to Google Maps. We could have walked there! Well, in theory, anyway.
The inside of the Mall is pretty much what you would expect: a series of small cubicles filled with an incredible assortment of stuff. It’s a wholesale mall so there is quite a bit of clutter. Each stall is numbered just like at Erqi except the numbers don’t fall into as well-defined a pattern. We tracked down 159 and showed the lady in the stall the instructions we had been given. She had no idea what we were talking about. She talked to the lady across the hall in a rather animated conversation. A quick phone call and a third lady walked up with a big smile on her face. Miss Xie! With the help of one of the workers, our half roll appeared encased in the rattiest plastic bag I have seen for a while. There were many holes in it but they disappeared under about 5 pounds of packing tape that Miss Xie used to secure our load. A twist tie on the top and the only thing left was to pay! She wanted exactly what I thought it should cost so we were on our way. No more than 10 minutes. Unbelievable!
We are fairly used to being stared at but today we gave folks their money’s worth: two waiguoren walking along carrying a huge red plastic bag. The 613 bus pulled up and Lesley jumped on and paid for both of us. Oops. I could get the bag in the door but not past the cash box. The driver laughed and signalled that I should get off and get back on through the back door which is much wider. Off to Xiaolubiao station!
As we rumbled down the fairly busy road, we pondered how we were going to know when to get off. Metro and IKEA are pretty big and colourful so we weren’t too worried. When they appeared, we bailed. Hmmmm. We are on the wrong side of a four lane, very busy road. At a small break in traffic, we bolted for the other side. People actually slowed down for us to get across safely. Now it was a simple matter to walk to the Quinggui which was about 2 long blocks away.
We managed to get through the turnstiles by each carrying one end and lifting the whole thing over the gates. Getting on and off the Qinggui can be a bit of a challenge due to people pushing their way on to get the seats but, with this big package, we had no trouble. In Jinshitan, we decided to wait until everybody had gone through the turnstiles before trying to negotiate them ourselves. There were plenty of cabs but we opted to walk back. The bag seemed light by this time.
Dianne was home for lunch and very impressed with our success. About 3.5 hours door to door. Considering that two of those hours were spent riding the Qinggui, we were pretty happy with our adventure. The cappuccinos were a nice treat even if I had to make them myself.
Now the packing begins in earnest.
As the end of the school year comes around the bend, I have watched with pride how far my little men have strided and grown learning from their own failures and successes. I watch in awe how spirited they have become — I wonder is it time to unravel some of the bubble wrap that surrounds them? It was just this weekend my nine-year old taught me an important lesson knowing when it’s time to let go of the reins.
“Mom! Do we have any strawberries?”
“Yes! They are in the fridge. I’ll get them for you in a minute.”
“It’s okay Mom! I got it!”
I hear him open the utensil drawer, shifting through it, and peaked my head around the corner.
“What are you looking for?”
“The cutting knife.”
“I’ll cut them for you.”
“No mom! I can do it!”
Instinctively, I walked over getting the knife out of the drawer ready to begin slicing the strawberries for him. He put out his hand for the knife looking exasperated.
“Mom! I’ve done it before.”
“When?”
“When you were gone one afternoon and dad was downstairs working in the basement. I just did it. And I didn’t cut my fingers. Just let me do it.”
I handed over the knife and hovered over him watching intensely as he chopped up the strawberries.
“Be careful. Watch your fingers.”
“I know Mom.”
It was with that he carefully cut each strawberry,paying attention to every detail, ensuring his little fingers were safely away from the blade.
Once he was finished, “See I did it! You know I’m going to be in grade 4 next year. I can do this stuff.”
It was with that small moment of hovering over my son, watching him grow to become more independent and responsible. I knew it was time to loosen the reins and give him a little bit more freedom. If I want him grow to become the confident young man he is meant to be, I can’t always hover, and must slowly unravel just a little bit more of the bubble wrap that I have constricting him.
Do you think we give children less responsibility these days? How do you know when it’s time to unravel the bubble wrap?
by victorias_view
MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has sought the government’s help to levy a charge on consumers buying plastic carrybags.
According to the Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2011, no plastic carry bags will be available free of cost and the BMC will decide on the minimum price. “We want to implement the process of charging consumers for a plastic carrybag. It will not be more than Re 1,” said Mohan Adtani, additional municipal commissioner.
Other salient features of the Plastic Waste Management Rules 2011, are that carry bags cannot be less than 40 microns in thickness.
“We are already implementing this rule in Mumbai as we do not allow less than 50 micron thickness of plastic. Under the new rules, the minimum size for plastic carry bags will be 8×12 inches. Carry bags can be made from compostible plastic provided they conform to specific bureau of Indian standards,” said Adtani.
Under the new rules formulated by central government, on February 4, 2011, use of plastic material in satchets for storing , packing or selling of ghutka paan masala is banned. The plastic carry bags can either be white or only with those pigments colorants which are conformed with the bar prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards.
Mumbai generates 700 tonnes of dry waste daily, most of which is plastic. BMC has already constructed 11 static locations for sorting non-biodegradable waste and 13 wards are allowed to do sorting in vehicles.
BMC seized 12 lakh plastic carry bags which were less than 50 microns in the last three months.
AVA, N.Y. (AP) — A 13-year-old central New York girl’s idea to use bubble wrap to create a floating garden has earned her first place in a national competition for new inventions using the packaging product.
Elmwood Park, N.J.-based of Sealed Air Corp. announced Monday that Lillith Bulawa of Ava won the grand prize in the fifth annual Bubble Wrap Competition for Young Inventors.
After reading about Americans who lost crops to recent flooding, Bulawa designed a self-watering garden that sits in a box atop a raft made of Bubble Wrap.
Her invention won her a $10,000 savings bond. She’s a seventh-grader at Lyndon H. Strough (strow) Middle School in Rome.
Bulawa received the award at a ceremony Saturday in Manhattan. The nationwide competition encourages students in grades six through eight to design an invention using Bubble Wrap.
Communities Aim to Build on San Francisco Ban, but Some Businesses Object; a Fee for Paper Sacks, Too
By VAUHINI VARA
The move to outlaw plastic shopping bags is spreading from San Francisco to other Bay Area communities, but the latest measures are rankling some shopkeepers and plastic manufacturers who say the bans go too far.
When San Francisco banned single-use plastic bags from big grocery stores in 2007, some dismissed the move as just another idiosyncrasy of the famously progressive city. Now, a number of neighboring local governments, including San Jose and Sunnyvale, are approving or considering bans of their own. The idea is to keep plastic bags from littering streets, jamming trash-processing machines and swimming in San Francisco Bay. The San Francisco ban has lowered plastic-bag waste in the city by 15% to 20%, according to the city’s trash and recycling contractor.
Encouraged by San Francisco’s example, these communities hope to take the bag ban one step further. Because paper bags have environmental problems of their own—trees and other resources are consumed to make them—some local governments are aiming to limit use of both plastic and paper, by banning plastic bags altogether and charging a nominal fee for paper ones. The goal is to persuade shoppers to start bringing reusable bags to stores.
The latest measures come in the wake of a well-publicized state bill that would have banned single-use plastic bags throughout California. The measure ultimately failed last year but attracted the attention of local governments that are now considering bans of their own. Another impetus is a new state requirement that cities in the Bay Area limit debris that passes into water bodies through storm drains.
Those developments “have motivated cities to move forward, in addition to many of them just wanting to do the right thing for the environment,” said Felicia Madsen, chief strategy officer at Save the Bay, an environmental group that advocates for plastic-bag bans.
In 2007, San Jose City Council member Kansen Chu visited his native Taiwan and noticed grocers charging customers for plastic bags. “I thought, ‘Wow, if governments in Taiwan can do it, why can’t we also implement something similar?’ ” he recalled.
But San Francisco’s controversial plastic-bag ban that year had mobilized plastics-industry lobbyists who wanted to keep other cities from adopting similar plans. Representatives of the American Chemistry Council began meeting with city officials in San Jose and elsewhere around the region to tout other options, like plastic-bag recycling.
Another group called the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition, made up of plastic-bag makers, took an unorthodox legal tack: It sued Oakland and other cities that had approved plastic-bag bans without first filing environmental-impact reports. By state law, cities must file such reports before making any decision that may adversely affect the environment, and the coalition argued that a plastic-bag ban qualified because it would boost the use of paper bags.
Hoping to avoid a lawsuit, San Jose paid a consultancy $140,000 to study the issue. The resulting report said both paper and plastic bags harm the environment.
“We took our time—a little too long by my measurement—but we did a solid environmental study and found that paper is really not very environmentally friendly, either,” Mr. Chu said. “So we said, ‘Well, maybe we should consider a limitation on the paper bag as well.”
The culmination of his efforts came in December, when San Jose’s city council approved a plastic-bag ban starting in January 2012, along with a 10-cent charge for each paper bag, which would rise to 25 cents after two years.
Other local governments are moving ahead with bans of their own. Marin County in January approved a ban. Palo Alto considering an expansion of its 2009 ban that currently is limited to a handful of supermarkets. And Sunnyvale is about to start compiling its own environmental-impact report, with the hope of approving a ban by year’s end. Other cities considering bans include Fremont and Daly City. Some of the cities are considering new fees for paper bags, ranging from five to 25 cents.
But the plastic industry said the measures will cause needless headaches. Tim Shestek, senior director of state affairs for the American Chemistry Council, said cities instead should promote plastic-recycling programs in grocery stores. He called that alternative consumer- and business-friendly because it would give consumers more choices and keeps their costs down, while helping plastic-bag makers and keeping more recycled plastic in circulation for businesses that use it.
“We’re doing all we can to hit those folks with the idea that this approach is really unnecessary and could have some significant unintended negative impacts,” Mr. Shestek said.
Environmentalists counter that the best solution would be to persuade more consumers switch to reusable cloth bags. “That’s the most environmentally friendly alternative,” said Ms. Madsen of Save the Bay. But she says the combination of a plastic-bag ban and fee for paper ones is a good initial step.
The transition could be tricky, however.
At San Jose grocery Zanotto’s, cashier Melissa Martinez anticipated contending with grumbling customers. “They like to be able to choose” between paper and plastic, she said, adding that some customers are stockpiling plastic bags ahead of the ban.
 Peter Earl McCollough for The Wall Street Journal
|
|
Comments are closed 
