Waste Not Shredder Bag

Abstract

A bag that is made out of paper, recycled paper or paper-based material is designed in appropriate sizes and shapes to fit a variety of paper shredder machines in order to efficiently collect the paper shreddings which are output from such a machine so that the container and its contents can be directly placed into the paper-recycling stream without additional time and labor spent separating the paper contents from what currently is typically a plastic bag or rigid container. The preferred embodiment is designed with peel and stick adhesives on the top flaps to close the top with a double layer of flaps, to better secure the contents against spillage and theft, and integrated handles provide for more convenient transfer of the container and contents from the paper shredder machine, ideally to a paper-recycling destination.

1 . A paper based shredder bag, made from any recyclable paper, including recycled paper, to contain shredded waste from paper shredder machines, comprising:
 a bottom;   a front panel and a rear panel, said front panel and said rear panel attached to opposite sides of said bottom and having substantially the same size, and with a front top flap attached to a top edge of said front panel and a rear top flap attached to a top edge of said rear panel;   a pair of side panels, each one of said pair of side panels having the same size and attached to opposite sides of said bottom, each of said side panels having a side flap extending from a top edge of each of said pair of side panels;   wherein the length of each of said pair of side flaps is sufficient to overlap each other when folded over the opening of said bag; and,   the length of each of said front and rear flaps is sufficient to overlap each other when folded over the perpendicularly overlapped side flaps; and,   each set of flaps can be manually taped down with commercial adhesive tape to secure a double layered closure which lacks external openings.   
   
   
       2 . The container as in  claim 1  in which said side flaps have half cuts through opposite sides of said side flaps that interlock when folded down and overlapped over the opening of the bag; and
 said front and rear top flaps also have half cuts through opposite sides of said side flaps that interlock when folded down and overlapped perpendicularly over the overlapping and interlocked side flaps creating a double layer of interlocked perpendicular sets of flaps which can also be manually taped down with commercial adhesive tape.   
   
   
       3 . The bag as in  claim 1  further comprising:
 peel-and-stick adhesive attached to at least one side of each set of said pairs of side flaps, and said front and rear flaps, to create a double layered top seal without any manually added adhesive.   
   
   
       4 . The bag in  claim 3  further comprising:
 an L-crease formed in either one of said front or rear top flaps between said attachment to said front or rear panels, respectively, and the top edge of the respective top flap, said L-crease dividing said respective top flap into a proximal and a distal section;   wherein the peel and stick adhesive on the top L-creased flap is located on the proximal area of said flap; and   said distal section containing an orifice;   wherein said respective top flap is folded along said L-crease so as to fold said proximal section directly over at least said side flaps, and possibly the other top flap to form a two layer closure of said opening of said bag;   wherein said top distal section with said orifice extends away from said double layer closure and provides a single layer carrying handle for the closed paper bag.   
   
   
       5 . The bag in  claim 3  further comprising:
 an L-crease formed in said front or rear top flap between said attachment to said front or rear panel, respectively, and the top edge of the respective top flap, said L-crease dividing said respective top flap into a proximal and a distal section; and   an L-crease formed in said rear top flap between said attachment to said rear panel and a top edge of said rear top flap, said L-crease dividing said rear flap into a proximal and a distal section; and   both front and rear top distal flaps contain orifices which will align with each other;   wherein said front top flap and said rear top flap are each folded along said L-crease so as to fold each of said proximal sections directly over said side flaps to form a two layer closure of said opening of said bag wherein each of said front flap distal section and said rear flap distal section are adjacent to each other and extend away from said double layer closure, providing a double layered carrying handle for the closed paper bag.   
   
   
       6 . A paper based shredder bag as recited, with or without handles, further comprising:
 paper-recycling-compatible reinforcement along the outer corners of the side, front and rear panels with the bottom; and   paper-recycling-compatible reinforcement along the outer edges between the side panels and the front and rear panels; and   where a handle is part of the design, paper-recycling-compatible reinforcement around the orifice or orifices that define the handle of the paper bag shreddings container.   
   
   
       7 . A paper based shredder bag as recited in  claim 6 , further comprising:
 a paper-recycling-compatible wax or glycine coating to help the container withstand exposure to external moisture, such as rain.