Held annually by the Greater Cincinnati Earth Coalition, the Earth Day event showcases environmental education initiatives and hands on activities for participants. This year, Duro Bag Mfg. Co. collaborated in this creative project in anticipation of the Saul Steinberg exhibit appearing later this summer at the Cincinnati Art Museum (CAM).

In order to create awareness of the naturally recyclable nature of paper bags, Duro Bag asked the Cincinnati Art Museum staff to create a grocery bag embellished with a special mask design reflective of the Saul Steinberg cartooning style. These activity bags were printed on recycled Kraft paper and used to engage children and parents into thinking about the use of paper as a sustainable and recyclable product -- one of Duro Bag's new environmental initiatives towards creating sustainable packaging. At least fourteen Duro Bag staff, friends and family members were on hand to help children (and adults!) color and embellish their special mask bags at Saturday's Earth Day festivities. Rick Hensley, of Duro's Information Services team, noted "I know while I was there we seemed to have a steady stream of 5 to 10 children coloring the bags. Also, the bags seemed to be of great interest to all of those passing by on the walkway."

The creativity of the finished bag masks created quite a stir, and as Cindy Fink, Director of External Relations and Marketing for Cincinnati Art Museum observed "It was so cool to see the bags everywhere along Sawyer Point!"

Saul Steinberg is known as one of America's foremost cartoonists and frequently used paper bags as a medium for his delightful masks. The "Illuminations" exhibit featuring his work is coming to the Cincinnati Art Museum from July 21 - September 23, 2007.

In addition to distributing more than 1500 mask bags to the budding artists that participated, the bag art booth also created opportunities for conversation about environmental issues. "I've been saying paper is a better option for years. It would be great if more bags made from recycled paper were more readily available in stores," said John A. from Lansing, Michigan. Another Earth Day participant noted that "it would be great to see paper bags made from 100% recycled fiber at the checkout counter, what are you waiting for?"

Eddie Gallup was also able to pique the interest of Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory on the issues of recycled paper who stopped by and noted that this was a "good cause and a good thing to do."

Special thanks from Duro go out to all of the staff and volunteers who helped make this innovative event happen: Rick and Sonya Hensley, Eddie Gallup, Tony Martin, Kim McGillicuddy, Kyle Gassman and Kim Forsyth, Steve Champion and Stacey Grimm, Wanda Tepe and her son Brad, Greg Corwin of Image-Genesis, Emily Sullivan, Brian Heim, Marian Cosgrove, Jutta Lafley, and Cindy Fink of the Cincinnati Art Museum. An extra special thanks goes to Sylvia Shor who made sure the volunteers had plenty of refreshments while they were working with all of the children.

For more information on the Saul Steinberg exhibit visit www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org or the www.saulsteinbergfoundation.org websites. For more information on Duro Bag's sustainable packaging initiative visit www.durobag.com.

For more information please contact:

Michael D. Ruscher
Marketing Department, Standard Products
Duro Bag Manufacturing Company
(800) 879-3876 ext. 504
(859) 371-5384 Fax
email