By Jacques Blais, Lanaudière Zone Patroller (jacques.blais@skipatrol.ca)
Many of us use plastic bags for ice packs. Most often we use bread bags that we simply fill with snow. So far there is nothing cool in this article (except for the snow)!
What is cool is the way I pack them in my pack or my pockets.
Fold them and roll them
Here is a neat way to fold them so that they are readily available and do not require lots of room in your pockets or packs.
I particularly like the bags from Fairmount Bagel (a place you should visit when in Montreal). Small pita bags and hot-dog buns bags are cool too, but any bread bags will do.
Step 1
Purge the bag of any air and debris and lay it down flat on a table.
Step 2
Fold the bag widthwise as often as necessary so that its width is one to 1.5 inches (2.5 to four cm) wide.
Step 3
Fold the bag lengthwise once but not quite in the middle.
Step 4
Roll the strip from the folded end into a neat tight roll and secure it with a rubber band (a recycled shallot bunch rubber band will do the trick.
Final product
Many uses
Apart from being inexpensive and a neat way to reuse plastic bags and used rubber band, these little packs have many uses:
- An ice pack (of course).
- A garbage bag for used gloves.
- A garbage bag for red snow and other biohazard products.
You just cannot have too many of them!
This post is also available in: French