The paper bag is said to have first appeared around 1852 when Francis Wolle and his brother built the first mass-production machine for flat, envelope-style paper bags. They created the Union Paper Bag Company after patenting the machine. The development of this machine that is capable of mass-producing bags was a significant step toward the widespread usage of paper bags. 

This original paper bag design went through different modifications in the hands of different developers. For example, Walter Deubener, a merchant in Saint Paul, Minnesota, discovered that his customers were having difficulty transporting their food home with the available bag alternatives in 1912. He punched holes in a normal paper bag to make handles and threaded the rope through the holes. He and his wife Lydia manufactured 50 of these brown paper bags with handles to sell for $5 apiece, and they quickly ran out. He chose to trademark his innovation, which he dubbed the “Deubener Shopping Bag.” They were selling over a million bags each year by 1915.

All of these advancements in the mass manufacture of paper shopping bags eventually led to retailers employing the bags for marketing and branding. And for many individuals, paper bags made life easier. With it, people could easily bring their goods and purchases home. Retailers improve their customers’ shopping experiences by offering useful paper bags that are 100% biodegradable, reusable, and recyclable.

Even though contemporary technologies and engineering have converted an old trade into a highly technological enterprise, the essential procedures of making paper bags have remained unchanged for centuries. 

The following are the steps in the process: 

• Preparation of Raw Material
• Fiber Separation
• Bleaching Process
• Papermaking
• Paper Sheering and Design Printing
• Eyelet Punching and Paper Creasing 
• Hard Press
• Folding, Sticking, and Finishing

Read a detailed description of how paper bags are made and where to source cheap kraft paper bags in an infographic by Bagitan Packaging.