Let’s talk a little bit about poly shipping bags. First of all: what are they? So the ‘shipping bags’ part seems pretty self-explanatory. But it’s that ‘poly’ part that starts throwing people off. Don’t feel bad, it threw me off too. I had to learn all about ‘poly’ and so now I will tell you. First of all, ‘poly’ is really just short for ‘polypropylene’ and now you can see why they were trying to keep it simple.

Nobody likes something they can’t pronounce. If it can’t be pronounced than surely it is something dangerous, like some mind-trick of the government or some secret agency that is somehow scamming us into doing their dirty work by not using the full term. Allow me to clear the air. I will spare you the spiel about the chemical and physical properties because it really doesn’t make any sense. Polypropylene on the molecular level doesn’t really matter to us because we are just trying to talk about poly shipping bags. I will tell you that it is a kind of polymer which, in the synthetic world (synthetic is a fancy way of saying ‘fake’), is basically plastic. So that probably doesn’t come as a surprise. Poly shipping bags are plastic. Big whoop. Well did you know that polypropylene is the second most important plastic? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

This type of material is chosen to make things out of because it is durable: its not easily destroyed, and it can withstand freezing and especially heat. On top of that, it is able to be joined by heat fusion which is a huge plus. All of this now ties into poly shipping bags. When you buy them you know you are getting a durable product that won’t be easily ruined, which means that it could probably even be reused, and at least whatever it is holding will be sufficiently protected. As for the heat joining, this is the cool part.

At PackagingSupplies.com they sell bag sealers, which does exactly what it says it does: it seals a bag by melting the two ends together, cutting off the excess in the process. The hand sealers come equipped with timers based on the thickness of the plastic, so that you don’t have to worry about doing a poor job. In particular, the rolls of poly tubing seem like the most effective type of poly shipping bags. You can use the heat sealer to just roll off however big you want the bag to be, and then seal it, and the next bag can be even bigger or smaller. When it’s all said and done, polypropylene has done the world of shipping and packaging and storing a huge favor.

I’m pretty sure Santa Claus uses bin liners. I imagine his toy shop is just full of bins, which means he needs the liners. I picture his factory with these gigantic bins of all sizes lining the walls, lined with the liners, and full of all of those pieces and parts that he makes all those toys with. I’m sure, in the past, the bins were full of plaid cloth squares, and fluff, and googly eyes. Nowadays they are probably full of buttons, and batteries, and wheels. Things have really changed. But probably not the bins and bin liners. I bet you that Santa Claus buys them from PackagingSupplies.com, too.

Even if you don’t believe in Santa Claus, which I wouldn’t you blame for (I mean, really, the whole thing doesn’t make much sense, and I hope you don’t mind me saying it), it’s probably at least easy to believe in bin liners. I’m not suggesting you start trying to convince your kids that bin liners have some sort of magical properties, and it would be hard-pressed to center that around Christmas of all things. BUT, when you think about toy shops, bins and bin liners make a lot of sense. And if you aren’t thinking about toy shops they still make sense for any kind of shop. Even for the supplier of the shop.

When you start breaking it down, I suppose it all starts with the suppliers. The suppliers need to have the bins in the first place and, therefore, they need to have the liners. They then fill said bins with the product, and ship them to the manufacturer, who opens them and has access to the product while they make what they are selling. Sure, Santa could just throw some bins in the back of the sleigh and drive out into his magical wonderland. I’m sure the elves pull cotton stuffing off the trees and stuff those bin liners. I’m sure they look underneath cute little plants and find Hot Wheels parts sprouting up, just waiting to be plucked.

There is probably a magical bird who lays plastic eggs, which are harvested and then melted down and poured into molds of all kinds… I think I’m getting carried away, but you get my point. It’s easy for Santa. Not so much for the laymen. There are many necessary steps that need to be taken in the industrial world this side of the North Pole, and bin liners have their necessary place amongst it all.

Bin liners are an amazing and versatile product to have on hand. I would even go so far as to call them a tool. I call them a tool because when I have something that needs a solution, I sometimes go to bin liners. Allow me to explain. I was cleaning out my garage the other day and I came across an old roll of bin liners. That’s right, I said roll. This is because bin liners conveniently come on a roll, just like garbage bags do. Only bin liners are quite a bit bigger, and they are gusseted.

At PackagingSupplies.com there are close to a hundred sizes. That’s not an exaggeration, either. At least there are fifty. If I counted them all I would probably wind up somewhere in the middle, like eighty, but that doesn’t seem like a productive way to be spending my time. Feel free to do so, and let me know the exact number if you want. But the point is that the smallest size is thirty-six inches by twenty-eight inches by sixty inches. That’s right, this is the smallest size. Three feet by five feet. That’s pretty big, with over two feet in width. Remember how I said that bin liners are gusseted? That means they have a width. Normal garbage bags are just two flat pieces of plastic bound at the sides, and open at one end. It is flat.

At the sides of the bin liners an extra piece of fabric is sown in so that the liner gets wider as it goes down to the bottom, so that entire bottom space of the bin can be used to maximum capacity. This is a handy trick indeed. Back to the sizes… The largest size is fifty-eight inches by forty-six inches by one hundred twenty-five inches. That’s over five and a half feet by ten feet! I mean, not to give anyone some crazy ideas, but you could fit some pretty huge stuff in there. Like probably even a tiger.

If I wanted to secretly ship a tiger somewhere I could imagine myself using the hugest bin liner, in the hugest bin. Cut some holes in there, toss in a few slabs of frozen meat, and that tiger should arrive at his destination with no problems (and without ruining the bin, thanks to the liner!). You may not find yourself wanting to ship a tiger, but you could probably find something else.