Garbage bag

A garbage bag, bin bag, rubbish bag (British English), bin liner, trash bag (American English) or refuse sack is a bag that can be thrown away. It can be used to contain solid waste. Most garbage bags today are made out of plastic. They are usually black, white, or green in color.

A typical black bin bag from the United Kingdom

Plastic bags are an easy and clean way of handling garbage. Plastic garbage bags are fairly light. They are useful for messy or wet rubbish. They are also used for wrapping up garbage to reduce its smell. Plastic bags are often used for lining waste bins.

It was in invented in 1950 by Canadians Harry Wasylyk, Larry Hansen and Frank Plomp. In a special on CBC Television, the green garbage bags (first garbage bags in Canada) ranked 36th among the top 50 Canadian inventions. The black plastic bags (the first garbage bags in the United States), are also introduced in 1950.

Plastic bags can be burned with the garbage inside them in the right facilities for waste-to-energy conversion. Some can decompose under specific conditions.

Colors

Trash bags or Trash liners usually come in different colors. However, these colors are not just made to make the trashes look good for the eyes. The colors usually show what kind of trash is supposed to go in them. Here are the meanings of the colors of the trash bags we see around:

1.Black – is generally for non-biodegradable, non-infectious garbage such as plastic cans, Styrofoams, candy wrappers, etc.

2.Green – is for biodegradable materials like left-over foods, vegetable and fruit peelings, leaves, twigs, etc.

3.Red – is commonly used in hospitals for bio-hazardous wastes such as syringe with blood, test tubes, human wastes, etc.

4.Blue – is usually used for industrial materials such as glass, heavy plastics, etc.

5.Clear – is normally used to hold recyclable products like cans, bottles, papers, etc.