A new Guinness World Record was secured at a Bradford-on-Avon primary school on Wednesday after pupils helped local business, Cotton Bag Co, to bag the record for the World’s Largest Jute Bag on International Plastic Bag Free Day.
Students from Fitzmaurice School helped teams from Cotton Bag Co to decorate the bag, which measured at 22.5m wide by 14.6m high. This was 11.6m longer than the previous record and 6.1m wider.
This initiative came as part of Plastic Free July, as an event to raise the profile of alternatives to plastic. Cotton Bag Co themselves produce eco bags, supplying a whole range of businesses across the UK with an alternative to single-use plastic bags.
The massive hessian-style bag was lifted thanks to help from Stage Lighting Services and Sparrow Crane Hire, who came together to ensure the bag could be displayed for the children and visitors to see. No mean feat, considering it is, after all, the largest Jute Bag in the world.
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.
The head mistress of the school explained, “Fitzmaurice was delighted to be asked to help with achieving this world record. It has enriched our curriculum and provided the children with a memory they will never forget. The children were so excited to see the bag being lifted – I think we were all blown away with the size of it.”
Managing director Jon Marling added “we make every effort to figure out how we can support sustainable solutions using environmentally friendly materials that are easy to reuse and recycle such as jute, cotton, or paper… It has been a really fun project and we are proud to have accomplished it with help from the school children at Fitzmaurice primary schoo.l"
This record follows a previous record that was obtained by sister company Paper Bag Co 2015, which saw them create the World’s Largest Paper Bag.