"It Didn't Break!"
How many of us remember that ad campaign for Prell Concentrate shampoo, touting their unbreakable plastic tube packaging? And who knew that was just the beginning?
Glass milk bottles remained on the scene for quite a number of years after those flat-topped wax-coated paper containers came into use, but some local dairies did begin delivering milk in Weyerhaeuser cartons in the late '60s. I recall reading on those cartons that instead of producing smoke when burned, they would only generate water vapor. This was likely an early nod to environmental responsibility (incineration was still a common household activity in those days) and certainly a P.R. move by one of the world's largest timber harvesters. I don't see the Weyerhaeuser brand on milk cartons anymore -- from the few dairies like Clover-Stornetta in Sonoma County that still use them, that is -- and wonder if this water vapor claim still applies, because in addition to grocery bags, toxic plastic jugs that end up in China and third world countries need to be banned as well.
P.S.
The plastics industry got around California's bag ban by making stronger bags and stating that they're reusable, even though they are discarded just as much as their flimsy predecessors were. Large grocery chains quickly adopted them. There's legislation pending that will plug this loophole in the bag ban law, and this can't happen soon enough. COVID inflicted a setback on the use of reusable bags, and people got out of the habit of bringing their own. Only the smaller grocery chains use paper anymore.