In the late 1970s, this North Carolina inventor developed the high-density plastic grocery bag. He helped make it the ubiquitous plague it is today. He must have recognized the problems at some point, because after he retired, Gordon Dancy started Phoenix Recycling, dedicated to recycling many of the plastic bags used in grocery stores:
Dec. 23, 2006
Myrtle Beach tinkerer dies
Kelly Marshall Fuller, The Sun News, Myrtle Beach, NC
A Myrtle Beach man who helped spread the phrase "paper or plastic" died Wednesday at Georgetown Memorial Hospital. Gordon Dancy, 67, who developed the high-density plastic grocery sack, spent his time improving items that would make the world run more smoothly, said his son, Mark Dancy...
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4 comments:
The history of plastics has been the history of reducing waste, pollution, and landfill requirements.
It is ironic then that so called "environmentalists" scoff at the benefits that people like Gordon Dancy have brought to the earth.
Tell me Earth Worshipper; what did the plastic grocery bag replace?
It replaced the paper grocery sack which in comparison, is an environmental nightmare (confirmed by anyone that has worked in a paper mill).
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Plastic bags use 40% less energy to produce and generate 80% less solid waste than paper (1) Paper bags generate 70% more emissions, and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags. (2) Even paper bags made from 100% recycled fiber use more fossil fuels than plastic bags(3)
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These benefits are repeated in case after case where plastic bags have replaced products are far more environmentally harmful.
Plastic trashliners reduce odors and replace trash cans that would require millions of tons of energy intensive steel cans and billions of gallons of water and detergents to clean.
Plastic milk crates replaced wood and steel crates that were less durable, used more energy and resources to make and clean etc, etc.
HMW-HDPE is a god send. It is chemically identical to candle wax and it will never degrade to leach into groundwater that is already the dumping grounds for so many other toxic waste compounds.
Russ Chelak
Many grocery bags nowadays ARE biodegradable, although they look like plastic. Here's a nifty way to convert these grocery bags into trash bags. It's easy to do, convenient to use, and earth-friendly.
It is amazing how people do not realize the damage they do when they throw plastic bags in rivers or elsewhere, just as when I buy viagra, I keep the envelope and send them to a recycling plant.
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