What Can You Do With Empty Coffee Packaging Bags?

Empty coffee and milk tea packaging bags can be cut, folded, and glued into storage boxes, tissue box covers, trash bags, and commuter bags, and crafters also turn them into journals. In winter, the same paper bags become handlebar covers for electric scooters, which block wind and cost nothing, and can be upgraded into insulated, waterproof pouches.

The habit of stockpiling drink bags builds up fast: a year of takeaway coffee and milk tea leaves far more bags than most households can reuse. Throwing them out feels wasteful and keeping them takes up space. Simple folding and gluing handles the basic storage items, while people with stronger hands-on skills get bags for commuting or dates out of the same material. The same cup of coffee at home with milk starts with less packaging waste.

As 2023 draws to a close, it's worth looking back and counting just how many cups of coffee and milk tea you drank this year — and there's a simple, blunt way to do it: see how many drinks packaging bags you've stockpiled at home. Some of these bags are nicely designed, others are sturdy and durable; throwing them away feels wasteful, but keeping them takes up space, and the more they pile up, the more of a burden they become. So netizens have put on their thinking caps and turned the packaging bags into storage boxes, tissue covers, commuter bags, and even journals; and now that winter has arrived, they've unlocked a new skill — using coffee paper bags to make electric scooter handlebar covers, which are windproof and money-saving, and can be upgraded to insulated bags for waterproofing and warmth. This article compiles these practical upcycling ideas and includes Front Street Coffee's related recommendations to help you turn "junk" into little joys in life.

There are only three days left in 2023. Has everyone taken stock of their spending bills for the whole year and counted just how many cups of milk tea and coffee they've drunk? Some friends don't even need to check their delivery records — just by looking at how many packaging bags have piled up at home, they can roughly calculate this year's "score."

But quite a few people are also troubled by this: the bags from various coffee shops and milk tea shops — some look great, some are solidly made — and throwing them away always feels wasteful; keeping them to store odds and ends is nice, and you don't feel bad when they wear out. The problem is, the bags pile up more and more, and there's simply no way to use them all up. What to do?

So netizens stared at the drink packaging bags at hand and kicked off a brainstorming session, determined to put them to full use and give them a second life.

The most common direction for upcycling is storage items, such as small-item storage boxes, trash bags, tissue box covers, and so on. It only takes a bit of time to cut, fold, and glue the packaging bags to turn idle bags into handy storage tools.

And those crafty DIY experts with stronger hands-on skills can go even further, turning packaging bags into bags suitable for commuting or dates, or a one-of-a-kind practical journal.

Netizens who care about festive vibes will use their stockpiled packaging bags to assemble a mini Christmas tree, adding a touch of Christmas spirit to their homes.

Besides these conventional tricks, netizens have recently developed a new use for packaging bags — electric scooter handlebar covers.

A while back, when the cold air hit, the icy wind on the road cut people's faces like a knife, and commuters riding little e-bikes had a rough time: ride fast, and your fingers get so stiff from the cold you can't even squeeze the brakes; ride slow, and you can't clock in on time — and being late means a pay deduction.

For the sake of their hands, many people consider buying a pair of electric scooter handlebar covers. But if the ones you buy are too nice, they might catch someone else's eye — and if they get swiped, that's truly infuriating.

So, to save money and avoid this hassle, some netizens turned their "claws" toward coffee paper bags — a few snips with scissors, and a pair of zero-cost handlebar covers is born.

According to netizens' field tests, the windproof effect is indeed decent. If you're temporarily short of a bag to carry things, no worries — just turn the handlebar cover inside out, and it instantly becomes a storage paper bag again.

However, for people who are especially afraid of the cold, paper bags can only block wind, not provide enough warmth, and a single heavy rain can ruin them.

This concern is understandable, and the fix isn't hard: just swap the paper bag for an insulated bag, and you get handlebar covers that are windproof, waterproof, and warm. If the insulated bag also has a printed design, that solves the looks issue too.

Netizens flooded the comments saying they'd learned something: "If I'd seen this earlier, I wouldn't have bought gloves~" "One more entry in the 100 ways to use a paper bag!" "You can even switch to a limited edition from time to time." "Won't feel bad even if they get stolen."

Though every generation has its own "junk," these stockpiled bags, once upcycled, can be turned from waste into treasure, continue to serve a purpose, and add a bit of fun to life. And the money saved can buy another cup of coffee or milk tea — why not?

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.