Annual usage of plastic bags by U.S. retailers is substantial, reaching billions of households. Many of these bags are of the t-shirt variety, with handles that project upwardly on each side from the mouth of the bag. Because a large number of plastic bags reach consumers, efforts have been made to provide advertising and coupons on bags.
Plastic bags and other types of packaging are often used for advertising. For example, grocery store retailers will print their name and logo on the front and/or back of each bag. Consumers often reuse bags and carry them back and forth to work, etc. As a result, retailers get free advertising while their bags are on display by the consumer. Thus, it is desirable by the retailer that their bags be unadulterated by coupons that block their logo and/or name.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,104 to Absher (“the '104 patent”) teaches the application of a coupon assembly to a t-shirt bag and a paper bag. The coupon assembly 2 taught in the '104 patent concerns a Technicote Magic Film construction, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The coupon assembly has a film portion 4 and a removable portion 6. The film portion is coupled to the removable portion by a fugitive adhesive 8. The film portion is secured to the bag by a permanent adhesive 10 and is not removable from the bag 12 so that it remains on the bag, even after the coupon is removed from the bag. The coupon assembly 2 in the '104 patent is shown positioned on a substrate 12, such as a bag. A paper layer 14 is positioned on top and has printing or ink I positioned on the top and bottom surfaces thereof. The bottom surface of the paper layer is coupled to a film layer 20 by a permanent adhesive 18. The bottom layer is a film 22 that is coupled to the bag by a permanent adhesive. A fugitive adhesive is positioned between the bottom of the paper layer (e.g., the film on the bottom of the paper layer) and the film that is positioned on the bag. When the paper layer 14 is removed along with the film 20, the fugitive adhesive 8 tears so that only the film and permanent adhesive remain on the bag, as shown in FIG. 2. The Technicote Magic Film label is positioned on a 40 lb. liner. Because of the type of label and liner, the Magic Film labels are not able to be fan-folded. Instead, they need to be positioned on rolls, as shown in the '104 patent.
In the recycling of plastic t-shirt bags, bags are typically ground and melted down. Typically the bags are washed of contaminants prior to recycling of the ground product. As a result, bags that have advertising media applied that is not the same material as the bag may not be recycled in the typical manner since contaminants are not permitted. For example, standard HDPE t-shirt bags that have paper coupons applied thereto would not be readily recyclable using standard means. Even where a plastic label and coupon combination is applied to an HDPE bag, a permanent plastic liner typically remains on the bag after the coupon is removed. In order to make the HDPE bag recyclable, not only would the paper coupon need to be removed, but the plastic liner would also need to be removed.