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Keith Schneringer
15 min read
This One or That? How to Select the Right Can Liner
Everybody needs can liners at their facility, but sometimes there can be confusion as to which can liner (or can liners) to purchase to best suit the...
Have you ever stopped to think about a world without can liners?
If you were born in the 1960’s, you probably can’t remember a time without can liners, and just take for granted that we have always had them.
However, the can liner was invented for very important public health reasons and still serves the public well today.
A Time Before the Can Liner
What did we do with waste before the invention of the can liner?
Well, if our American ancestors weren’t burying it or burning it themselves on their farms (like how we now handle municipal waste in our landfills), they would throw their waste in the street, where hogs, pigs, goats, dogs, or chickens might eat it.
They might dump their waste into a nearby ditch, river, or lake. Dirty sewage sometimes mixed into the drinking water, causing illness and disease. New York City began dumping its waste in the East River, a practice that made that body of water a smelly, germy mess.
Some states began to outlaw the hunting of vultures or even began to bring them into their states since these birds would eat waste and roadkill quickly and efficiently. Buildings and edifices were commonly infested with rats and cockroaches.
Benjamin Franklin began the first street cleaning service in America in 1757. He advocated that citizens dig holes to dispose of their waste and garbage.
As we learned more, the first landfill was opened in Fresno, California, in 1934 to help provide a more scalable and sanitary means of disposing of waste materials.
What About Trash Cans?
The first trash can in America was made of metal, and it first came on the scene in 1885. A Frenchman, Eugene Poubelle, is generally credited with the invention of the modern public “waste bin” in Paris, and his name is still used in France to refer to these receptacles. Poubelle is also credited with developing a system to collect and dispose of public waste.
Metal trash cans were supplemented by plastic trash cans in the 1920’s, but they still weren’t being used regularly with can liners until the 1970’s.
Back then, some common complaints about trash cans were that they were dirty and smelly. After a few weeks of holding all the waste generated by a typical public building or home, these containers would become quite ripe and need deep cleaning and disinfecting.
Enter the Can Liner – And All of Their Benefits
Can liners came on the scene and filled in the void to help protect public health, make waste collection easier and more efficient, and even protect the trash can receptacle itself.
Some of the key benefits of can liners include:
So, there you have it – the history of the can liner and the public benefits we receive from using it. Who would have thought they would become as ubiquitous as they are today when they were first invented back in 1950? And who can imagine modern life without them?
At BradyPLUS, we like to say that hygiene and safety are “in the bag” when you purchase can liners from us. Please contact your BradyPLUS Account Consultant today to learn more about all our can liner (and waste receptacle) options!
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