As a shredding company we see a lot of pollypockets, and I mean, A LOT! In fact, we see so many, that we have two different types of shredded paper – top quality shredded paper and pollypocket shredded paper. As this blog writer was sorting through some of this last week, I wondered why we all use so many of these plastic pockets? And also, who invented them? So today’s blog entry is answering these two important questions.
Who invented the pollypocket???
Well, we can thank Mike Townsend for this; he invented the punched plastic folder in 1986 (Wikipedia). How on earth did we manage before then?!
Why did he invent them??
To protect papers from spillage, damp, crumpling and other messy things that have no place in a tidy folder.
Why do we use them??
Well, for all of the above reasons, but I think there’s a bit more to it than that. I think they are an office comfort blanket and that we use them to help us feel like we are doing a good job in the office.
For example, if we’ve put a lot of paper into pollypockets on a Friday afternoon, the world feels like a much better functioning place. If I go to a meeting that is important to me and I have lots of papers to hand out, I feel much better entering the room with those papers safely wrapped in pollypockets. And when my daughter is getting prepared for exams, pollypockets are an essential part of the preparation process!
So perhaps we use pollypockets because they just make us feel good!
But are they good for the environment??
Well, they don’t harm the environment. They are usually made of recyclable material and are recyclable.
Do you need to get rid of pollypockets before putting your paper into a confidential waste bag?
No, but it would be kinder to the environment to reuse them
So, to answer the question…..do we REALLY need pollypockets? I think not. But do we like them? We certainly seem to! Thank you, Mike Townsend for your creation!
To find out more about Taclus Confidential and our shredding services, please do contact us.
Happy Friday!