## Canadian Inventors Harry Wasylyk & Larry Hansen
Harry Wasylyk was a Canadian inventor from Winnipeg, Manitoba, who together with Larry Hansen of Lindsay, Ontario, invented the disposable green polyethylene garbage bag. Garbage bags were first intended for commercial use rather than home use, and the new garbage bags were first sold to the Winnipeg General Hospital.
Coincidentally, another Canadian inventor, Frank Plomp of Toronto also invented a plastic garbage bag in 1950, however, he was not as successful as Wasylyk and Hansen were.
## First Home Use - Glad Garbage Bags
Larry Hansen worked for the Union Carbide Company in Lindsay, Ontario, and the company bought the invention from Wasylyk and Hansen. Union Carbide manufactured the first green garbage bags under the name Glad Garbage bags for home use in the late 1960s.
I don’t think we started using trash bags until the mid-70’s, after we moved in 1972.
My earliest memories are using a burn barrel. Trash went into a can that got carried outside. The burn barrel was provided by the city.
We had garbage service at another house. Everything went into the garbage can. The garbage men emptied the cans into the truck. Dad hosed out the cans when needed.
Year later I remember thinking it was silly to bag trash that burst open inside the truck.
They’ve always existed in my universe, so I did some checking.
1950
The History of Trash Bags: Invention
Wasylyk made the first plastic trash bag in his kitchen and supplied the bags to line the garbage cans at the Winnipeg General Hospital in 1950. He created this bag through a process called extrusion, which involved transforming tiny resin pellets into plastic bags.
I rarely see green ones. They’re either clear or black.
For a while we were supposed to use clear, so they could see whether we were putting recyclables in them. I don’t know whether the people who actually did the picking up ever paid any attention, though; and I don’t think that’s required any longer.
I remember the early green trash bags, but we didn’t use them yet. We had a burn barrel. Some neighbor kids were messing around with our burn barrel and my dad saw them and yelled to get away. Then, it happened. One kid’s hair caught on fire. Dad ran out there, knocked the kid over and smothered the fire with his jacket. The city changed to garbage trucks later that year. Dad’s employment with the city might have had something to do with the quick changeover.