Bread Clips & Keycards

~ the small plastic gatekeepers of modern life ~

The Humble Bread Clip

You know those little plastic things that keep your bread bag closed? They're called "bread clips" or "bread tags" and they were invented in 1952 by Floyd Paxton. He carved the first one from a credit card with a pocket knife on an airplane!

Color Code Secret: Different colors often mean different baking days!
Blue = Monday, Green = Tuesday, etc.
(Stores use this to rotate stock!)
~ * ~

The Mighty Keycard

Keycards replaced metal keys in hotels and offices because they're cheaper to replace, can be reprogrammed, and track who goes where. They work using magnetic stripes, RFID chips, or both!

ROOM 404
NOT FOUND
Hotel Tip: Keycards demagnetize near phones!
That's why your room key stops working after sitting in your pocket with your phone all day...

What do they have in common???

Bread Clips

  • Guard freshness
  • Cheap plastic
  • Easily lost
  • Single-use intended
  • Invented by accident
  • Lives in junk drawer

Keycards

  • Guard access
  • Cheap plastic
  • Easily lost
  • Single-stay intended
  • Designed carefully
  • Lives in wallet
BOTH are small plastic rectangles that control ACCESS to something! One keeps air OUT of bread. One keeps people OUT of rooms. Gatekeepers!

The company that makes most bread clips (Kwik Lok) produces over 5 BILLION clips per year! Meanwhile, hotels issue millions of keycards daily. The world runs on small pieces of plastic we barely think about!

The Philosophy of Small Plastic Things

Both bread clips and keycards exist in the space between "important" and "disposable." You need them. You don't keep them. They're manufactured by the billions. They end up in landfills or forgotten drawers.

They're the infrastructure of everyday life—so common they're invisible, so necessary they're everywhere, so cheap they're meaningless, so functional they're essential.

deep thought:
We trust our bread freshness and personal security to objects that cost fractions of a penny to make. What does that say about civilization?