New record in the bag

A jute bag the size of nine double-decker buses has smashed the Guinness World Record after it was hoisted to the sky at a primary school in Bradford-on-Avon.

Pupils from Fitzmaurice School helped local business, Cotton Bag Co, to snatch the record for the World’s Largest Jute Bag on International Plastic Bag Free Day (03 July).

A record-breaking bag

The bag, which measured 22.5m wide by 14.6m high, was 11.6m longer than the previous record and 6.1m wider.

It can hold 208,752 footballs or close to two million bottles of water, and took a whole morning to decorate, with pupils from the school helping out.

Over the coming weeks, the bag will be cut up into smaller squares and given to the children so that they can make their own smaller bag or pencil case from the material.

Ditching plastic bags

Cotton Bag Co supplies UK businesses with an alternative to single-use plastic bags. As well as showing their customers what is possible, but they also wanted to take part in Plastic Free July and encourage people to use more eco bags that are made from plant-based materials or paper.

A local crane hire company helped to lift the massive hessian-style bag so the bag could be displayed for the children and visitors to see.

This record follows a previous record, obtained by sister company Paper Bag Co in 2015, for creating the World’s Largest Paper Bag.