SEALED AIR SALUTES INNOVATION ON BUBBLE WRAP® APPRECIATION DAY

Two Inventors Created the Product that Started a Revolution in Small Parcel Shipping

Monday, January 27, 2020

CHARLOTTE, N.C., January 27, 2020 – More than 60 years ago, two inventors – Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes – created something new, something the world had never seen, something no one had ever tried to make.  

The men found an ingenious way to seal pockets of air between two plastic shower curtains creating a pattern of tiny 3D bubbles. They thought it would make for an avant-garde wallpaper for risk-taking interior designers. Problem was the designers didn’t want it. No one wanted it. 

But the bubble sheets still had potential. The air-filled material could easily be turned into protective packaging that would prevent damage to even the heaviest and intricately shaped items. And so, the Sealed Air Corporation was born, and an iconic consumer brand was launched into history.  

Six decades after the invention of BUBBLE WRAP^® brand packaging, Sealed Air is still inspired by that first great idea. Since this time, the company has created thousands of ways to seal air between pieces of thin, strong plastic, and it’s far from finished.

The latest re-invention of BUBBLE WRAP^® brand packaging is a version made with at least 90 percent recycled content sourced frompost-industrial materials that would otherwise end up in landfills. Consumers can purchase it from Amazon. 

With more than 2,700 patents and pending applications worldwide, Sealed Air’s team of engineers continues to invent new, sustainable ways to protect valuable products shipped across the globe. There will soon be more solutions like recycled-content BUBBLE WRAP^® brand packaging resulting from the company’s commitment to doubling the speed of delivering these types of innovations.

Bubble Wrap-Up Podcast  

To celebrate BUBBLE WRAP^® Appreciation Day, today Sealed Air launches the Bubble Wrap-Up podcast, which explores the hidden stories of e-commerce retail and delivery. The first episode features Howard Fielding, the son of BUBBLE WRAP^® brand packaging co-inventor Alfred Fielding, who talks about being the first kid ever to pop the bubbles of BUBBLE WRAP^® brand packaging.

 BUBBLE WRAP^® Brand Headquarters

For a comical take on BUBBLE WRAP^® Appreciation Day, see what it's like to work at BUBBLE WRAP^® brand headquarters (aka Sealed Air) in this behind-the-scenes parody video.

About Sealed Air
Sealed Air is in business to protect, to solve critical packaging challenges, and to leave our world better than we found it. Our portfolio of leading packaging solutions includes CRYOVAC^® brand food packaging, SEALED AIR^® brand protective packaging, and BUBBLE WRAP^® brand packaging, which collectively enable a safer, more efficient food supply chain and protect valuable goods shipped around the world. Sealed Air generated $4.7 billion in sales in 2018 and has approximately 15,500 employees who serve customers in 123 countries.

About BUBBLE WRAP^® Brand Packaging
In 1957, Alfred W. Fielding and Marc Chavannes set out to create a new wall covering by laminating two plastic sheets with air bubbles in between. Although their invention never caught on as interior decor, the two men discovered the material's lightweight, insulating properties were very useful – first as greenhouse insulation and then as the protective packaging material we now know as BUBBLE WRAP^® brand packaging. In 1960, Fielding and Chavannes founded Sealed Air Corporation with BUBBLE WRAP^® brand packaging as the company's signature product.