The Paper Bag

The paper bag is a shopping icon. consumers use 20% of the paper bags manufactured to carry bought goods in. Every year, they cut fourteen million trees down to produce the demand retailers have for the ten billion bags that are used. Each bag costs the store four cents to produce. They may take more energy and resources to make than plastic, but at least the resources are renewable and they can biodegrade faster than plastic. Here are some useful doomsday uses for those extra bags.

Puppets

This is a great project for kids during and after a disaster. You don’t need any super fancy, expensive supplies to make them. Just a stack of lunch-style paper bags and markers. If you can stock up on an assortment of stickers, that would be a pleasant addition to the puppets. Young children under six years old do not know what is going on around them. All they know is they are scared, and there is no more home. Having them do simple crafts like this can keep them occupied and distract them from the grim situation outside.

Bartering

I dedicate a small portion of my preps towards bartering. This way I don’t take away from my household needs to fill in my prepping holes. When I make a deal with someone, I will deliver them in a paper bag. This way they get the items they “paid for”, and I don’t have to chase them down to get my bag back. Providing a bag makes the trade seem more friendly, and will encourage them to do business with you again. Passersby will mistake the bag for trash, providing you with a type of secrecy upon delivering. You can label paper bags easier than plastic, so if you are delivering multiple orders you’ll be able to organize them better.

Temporary Safety Cone/Checkpoint Marker

Some stores (like Aldi) sell paper bags that are big and sturdy. Because of this, you can make them into a crowd control device in an hour or two. First, take your paper bag and spray paint all the sides a particular color. An excellent system to use would be red means forbidden zone, yellow is dangerous, authorized personnel only, and blue could be for a security check. Whatever the colors mean, make sure everyone in your party knows them. Once the paint dries, put them in their assigned spots and fill them with sand, dirt, or gravel. The reason you want to place them before filling is so the bottoms don’t rip in transport.

Teaching Aid

As we saw with COVID when it hits the fan, schools were the first to close. Parents are going to be left on their own to teach their kids the basic skills they’ll need to survive. You can cut it into shapes to teach basic sewing skills, like attaching a button, without damaging the valuable fabric. Cut it into a circle and place a stick in the middle to make a sundial. While you’re doing all this cutting, let the little ones do it to teach them how to use scissors. Fill it with textured objects to teach little ones about touch and feeling through mystery sensory play games.

It Is Paper

A paper bag is just that, paper. So, whatever you would do with paper, you can do with a paper bag. You can use strips of it for fire tinder. Cut into sheets and bind with a paper or binder clip to make a crude notepad for planning. Make a chore wheel out of it to assign jobs to team members. Use the leftover sheets to write messages on them and post them in the public meeting spot to keep your fellow survivors informed on all activities and conference times should they have any issues. Cut into animal or plant shapes and host shadow puppet theater for the kids.