Polyethylene Bags: Polymer Activity From The

Polymer Activity from the:
Teachers may reproduce this activity for their use.
Polyethylene Bags
Grades: 6-8
Science Standards: Content Standard A: Science as Inquiry; Content Standard B:

Physical Science;
Purpose: To discover the physical properties of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high
density polyethylene (HDPE) bags used in packaging food.
Links: Technology, Chemistry
Materials: (for a pair of students)

One zip-type bag - quart size or sandwich size Sink or pan to catch water
One HDPE grocery bag Scissors
Sharp pencil (safety concern) Ruler
Procedure:
1. Take the zip-type bag (LDPE) and inflate it by blowing air into it. Seal it. Squeeze it.
Does the air come out? Is the seal good? Write your observations.
2. Unseal the bag and half fill it with water. Zip it closed. Hold the bag over a sink or pan.
Take a sharpen long pencil and insert it into the bag so that the point goes in one side and out
the other. What happened to the water in the bag?
3. While the bag is still over the sink or pan, gently remove the pencil. What do you
observe? __________________________________________________________
4. Take the HDPE (high density polyethylene) grocery sack and cut strips of the bag with
scissors. Cut two inch or 5 cm wide by 7 inch or 18 cm long strips following this pattern.
Cut two strips for each direction and make four total strips. Label a strip "L" for length and
"W" for width. Gently pull on each strip until you break it.
What did you observe?
length Grocery Bag

strip
width strip
Polyethylene Bag
1
Conclusions:
1. The plastic zip bag is made out of low density polyethlyene (LDPE). This molecule looks
like this:
How would you explain the "pencil in the bag of water" observations?
2. LDPE allows light to pass through the plastic. Is this bag transparent?
3. The grocery bag is made of HDPE where the molecules have a similar structure to the
picture of LDPE. There is a difference! Here is HDPE.
How would you explain the tearing of HDPE based on this molecular structure?
4. HDPE does not allow light to pass through. Is this bag transparent?
5. The "bag machine" in the factory making grocery bags must arrange the molecules of
HDPE in a certain direction. If you were the mechanical engineer in charge of this machine,
how would you have the HDPE extruded or squeezed out of a machine to make the bags?
Here is a sketch of the bag. Place the molecule chains in the direction appropriate to make the
strongest bag for the customer. (Place them lengthwise, widthwise or diagonal.)
Grocery Bag
Polyethylene Bag
2
6. When an HDPE grocery bag gets wet, what happens to its strength?
7. Write an experiment to test your hypothesis about the wet bag question. List the steps of
your procedure.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
8. If the consumer did not have LDPE sandwich bags, zip-type bags and food wrap, what are
some alternatives for storage of food products? Would the alternatives keep the food fresh as
long as the plastic bags?
Polyethylene Bag
3
Teacher Notes for Polyethylene Bags:
The pencil can be inserted into the LDPE bag filled with water and it will not leak so long as
the pencil is in place. The polyethylene molecules will be moved apart by the pencil but will
"bunch" around the pencil to make a temporary seal. When the pencil is removed, the hole
through the plastic is present and water will leak out.
LDPE is one of the most widely used packaging materials in the market. It is low in cost
compared to wood and metal. It very tough, flexible, a barrier to moisture, chemical resistant,
and light weight. Sixty-five percent of the LDPE used in the world is for films and sheets to
make garbage bags, grocery sacks, garment bags, shrink film, stretch film, pond liners,
construction and agriculture film and food packaging. Grocery sacks made of LDPE are soft
and do not have a “rustle” sound. They are transparent. Fresh produce bags are sometimes
made out of LDPE
The HDPE grocery bag is extruded from the machine where the length of the bag has the
molecules going in the long chain direction. So when you pull on the lengthwise piece, the
chains stretch and then break the bonds. When you pull between the chains on the width strip,
they separate easily. The bag is designed so that the stretch is in the lengthwise direction.
Grocery Bag
High density polyethylene is one of the largest volume plastics in packaging today. Some of
the products made from HDPE are: gallon juice and milk jugs, cosmetic bottles, caps, pails,
crates, bag liners, grocery bags, cereal wrappers, snack-food wrappers, diary cups, pallets,
tubs, water tanks, and shipping containers. Milk jugs are manufactured to keep the container
light weight while the jugs for bleach are designed for higher environmental stress-crack
resistance. HDPE containers are opaque or translucent but never transparent due to the
molecular structure of the polymer. HDPE grocery sacks have a “rustle” sound when you
squeeze or rub them. A survey in 1995 found that over a third of all HDPE milk, juice and
water jugs are being recycled.
Take a PS cup (polystyrene cup – clear and brittle) and crack it. Where does it crack? It
tends to crack along the lines of the polymer chains. The crack is parallel to the chains.
HDPE grocery bags do not decrease in strength when they are wet. Students’ procedures will
vary about their ideas for testing their hypotheses. LDPE bags preserve food for us. They
also keep food fresh. Alternatives, that are not very good, are wax paper, aluminum foil
(expensive) or paper boxes.
Written by Mary Harris, Missouri Polymer Ambassador Copyright 1998
Polyethylene Bag
4

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Polymer Activity from the:

Teachers may reproduce this activity for their use.

Science Standards: Content Standard A: Science as Inquiry; Content Standard B:

Links: Technology, Chemistry

Materials: (for a pair of students)

length Grocery Bag

Written by Mary Harris, Missouri Polymer Ambassador Copyright 1998

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