Heading - New Scientist Environment Blog  An environment blog
from  Heading - NewScientist Blogs  Thursday, March 27, 2008
Happy birthday plastic bag  If you tend to feel sorry for
yourself when people don't wish you a happy birthday then spare
a thought if you will for the poor little plastic bag. It
celebrates its 75th today but has it received any cards? Not
even Google has put a celebratory banner on its logo.  More
seriously, and accurately, it's in fact polyethylene's birthday.
It was discovered by accident back in 1933 by Eric Fawcett and
Reginald Gibson at Imperial Chemistry Industries in Northwich,
England when they put a mixture of ethylene and benzaldehyde
under very high pressure. This resulted in a white waxy material
which has been gradually improved in order to become hard and
soft forms that are so pervasive not a day goes by without most
of us using them almost continuously.  The reason we're not
celebrating their birthday is the ethylene - it comes from crude
oil. Another reason is the very