Milwaukee – With the holiday travel season nearing, plastic-bag manufacturers are coupling with airport authorities to give travelers the plastic bags they need to carry shampoos and other liquid items aboard airplanes.
Bagmaker Hefty announced late Wednesday that it is offering more than a million 1-quart zip-top bags to airports around the U.S. to help with holiday travel. Glad Products Co. is also offering thousands of free bags to travelers.
The holiday travel season – which kicks off with Thanksgiving next week – marks the first major holiday since new regulations were imposed by the Transportation Security Administration.
In late September, the TSA declared that passengers can carry lotions and gels onto airliners only if they’re in clear, 1-quart zip-top plastic bags and if they are 3 ounces or less in size.
That followed a six-week ban of all gels and liquids on all planes, ordered on Aug. 10 after an alleged plot to bomb U.S.- bound jetliners was foiled.
Now the TSA is touting its 3-1-1 initiative, urging travelers to remember they can have bottles of 3 ounces or less; in a 1-quart, clear, plastic, zip-top bag; and only one bag per passenger.
Hefty, a subsidiary of Pactiv Corp., based in Lake Forest, Ill., said it wanted travelers to be prepared this holiday season, so that’s why it is offering its Hefty OneZip bags at airports in Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York, among many others.
In a similar move, Glad Products Co. is distributing free bags to airports such as Dallas/Fort Worth and San Francisco, said David Kellis, spokesman for the company, a division of Oakland, Calif.-based Clorox.
“What we’ve heard from the airports is there’s definitely confusion,” Kellis said.
At Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee on Wednesday, security officials displayed confiscated shave gels, lotions and shampoos for passengers, hoping to make them aware of the new restrictions.
Lou Traverzo, federal security director for the TSA in Milwaukee, said travel in August after the initial ban was time- consuming because passengers didn’t understand the new regulations.
There’s potential for the same problems during the holidays, he said, because many travelers who fly during the season are not frequent flyers.
