These days, we can’t exist without packaging. It’s used to move, store, and protect things. Beginning with the first days of industry, packaging has seen a remarkable transformation.
Historically, people have packaged items using materials found in nature. Among these items were woven cloth, animal skins, and wooden containers. Packaging materials evolved to be more long-lasting as society advanced. Products like paper, cardboard, and plastic were born out of this need for more durable methods of packaging, coinciding with the development of storage and transport techniques. We show you why It is important that we understand the evolution of agricultural bags, from traditional to modern packaging solutions. Trunel Bags is a leading supplier of produce bags. We also offer secondhand bulk bags as well as plastic sheeting for sale.
Throughout human history, there has been a pressing need to find ways to store, move, and contain various commodities.
The fundamental requirement for early humans to preserve and move their food from one location to another gave rise to the idea of packaging.
Historians argue that materials like nuts, gourds, animal skins, and leaves were used to store and transport goods during the nomadic hunter-gatherer days, although there is no record of the exact date of the earliest packaging materials.
An ancient Greek wine jar from the third century BC is one of the first recorded examples of packaging. A wax seal and a carrying handle adorned the jar.
During the Middle Ages, people in Europe started keeping food in wooden barrels. Various foodstuffs, including fruits, cereals, meat products, and vegetables, were packed into barrels. The use of barrels extended beyond just storing products like wine and oil.
It was in the 16th century when paper packaging initially gained popularity. When the Europeans first started populating other parts of the globe, they needed a reliable means of transporting food and other necessities. Because of its portability and low weight, paper was an obvious material for packing.
France produced one of the first bottles of wine, with an inscription that dates it to the 1560s. There was a wooden cork inside the glass bottle. With the cork serving as a stopper, the wine may be simply poured into the bottle.
Paper bags started to be used for more than just food in the 18th century. Tobacco packaging made of paper is one such example. A wireframe was enclosed in this paper parcel. The packaging made it easy to keep the tobacco for later use.
It wasn’t until Francis Wolle developed a machine that could mass-produce paper bags in 1854 that the first commercial paper bags were made.
The paper bags looked more like big mailing envelopes than what we would consider a paper bag today.
Cardboard was actually invented in China hundreds of years ago, but it wasn’t until 1817 that Sir Malcolm Thornhill came up with the idea for a cardboard box. Corrugated packaging wasn’t invented until 1871, hence these boxes weren’t made at that time. It was common practice for the silk industry to use cardboard boxes for the shipment of moths and their eggs from Japan to Europe.
Robert Gair, a printer from Brooklyn, accidentally created the first carton. Gair ran a business that made paper bags. In an unfortunate incident, Gair’s machine sliced through a stack of paper bags instead of creasing them. Then it hit Gair: prefabricated cartons might be made by cutting and creasing cartons in one process.
Though the precise year of its creation is uncertain, FIBC bags were likely introduced in the late 1950s. The United States was one of the last markets to get these bulk bags, which were mostly used by European and Japanese companies.
Compared to the bags you see now, the original FIBC bags were extremely different.
An older version would have sheets of polyester or nylon cloth coated with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and then welded together. Despite their large carrying capacity, these bags were incredibly costly at the time.
To keep prices down, FIBC makers began employing woven polypropylene resin, which is still in use today. The 1970s saw a rise in interest in FIBC bulk bags among several nations. The demand for FIBCs increased together with the import of cement from Northern Europe, Spain, and Italy into Middle Eastern countries.
The United States Department of Transportation eventually authorised that jumbo bags could be used to transport hazardous goods under a number of exceptions in the 1980s. As a result, FIBC bags were adopted by the chemical, pharmaceutical, and waste-disposal sectors as a means to enhance operational safety and efficiency.
Worldwide, FIBCs move more than 25,000 metric tons of goods annually from a variety of sectors. The worldwide market for agricultural packaging was worth $7.46B in 2022 and is projected to reach $13.13B by 2032, expanding at a CAGR of 5.82% from 2023 to 2032. Plastic, metal, paper, paperboard, composite materials, and others make up the various segments of the worldwide agricultural packaging market. Throughout the projected timeframe, the plastic segment is anticipated to hold the lion’s share of the market. (Agricultural packaging market, https://www.precedenceresearch.com).
To facilitate the use of forklifts, hooks, or other suspension techniques, FIBCs are equipped with handles or straps that allow for easy filling and complete discharge.
FIBC bags offer great value for the money and are here to stay.
If you liked this article, you might also be interested in the importance of high-quality agriculture bags for crop protection.