Trying to fix a leak and found a plastic bag from 1997

Last week I was under a house in Dayton, clearing a main line clog. I pulled out this whole wad of roots and muck, and wrapped up in it was a grocery bag that was still kinda legible. The sell-by date on a coupon stuck to it was October 1997. I mean, that bag was in the ground before I even finished high school, and it just now caused a problem. Has anyone else dug up some old trash that made you think about how long this stuff just... sits there?

3 comments

3 Comments

ninaowens9d ago

Found a toy soldier from the 80s in a flower bed last spring. Still had green paint on it. My neighbor's fence post had newspapers stuffed in the hole for insulation. Dated 1974. We just bury stuff and forget. That plastic bag will outlive the house it's under. Makes you wonder what we're leaving in the ground right now.

piper_kim8d ago

That line about the plastic bag outliving the house really sticks. It's not just old toys, it's all the cheap plastic junk from today. What do you think our grandkids will dig up and judge us for? Probably a million water bottles and phone cases. We're basically making a landfill layer for the future to find.

karenh568d ago

Ugh, my garden is full of those little plastic plant tags that snap right off. They'll be there forever.