On April 24, a design team of five Materials Science and Engineering students in their senior year presented the results of a project to redesign the paper bag at the campus-wide Georgia Tech Capstone Design Expo.

As the project abstract says, paper grocery bags, which were largely supplanted by commodity polyethylene bags in the late 20th century, are once again rising in popularity due to increasingly strict regulation, as well as rising interest in sustainability and environmentally benign products. Accordingly, in their study, students examined and tested an existing Trader Joe's paper bag design as a foundation for the development of new commodity paper bag concepts, with the intent of producing a more durable bag. The initial hypothesis was that the point of attachment of handle to bag was the failure point; however, students found that the strength of the handle itself was the issue. Students recommend further testing to determine the true strength of the conceptual attachment methods, as well as width improvements to the existing control bag, in order to achieve a more ideal product.

Carl Landegger, a former chair of the IPST board of trustees, provided a donation to fund the project. Norman Marsolan sponsored the project, and Dr. Meisha Shofner in the School of Materials Science and Engineering led the five-member team. Other resources assisting the students included Dr. Roman Popil of RBI-Georgia Tech, Debbie Hammack of KapStone Paper, and Dr. Robert Moon of USDA-Forest Service.