The Garbage Bin

The garbage bin was invented in the 1950s by an inventor named William B. Ellerbee, who had a particularly nasty childhood. Ellerbee has since claimed he got the idea from an episode of one of his children's programs, and that was how he came up with the garbage chute. That idea caught on in the toy industry and in the US.

Ellerbee claimed his invention was a simple, low-tech way to reduce waste. He created a machine which dropped the contents of a trash bin onto a conveyor belt in the middle of another tray. There were two options though: the regular trash chute or the automatic one.

The American Institute for Consumer Research, however, says Ellerbee invented both.

So to illustrate what we mean here, let's take a look at this video from a 2002 episode of the Discovery Channel's Planet Earth 2 that features scientists trying to figure out:

Who invented plastic?

The video opens with a science lesson and then a clip of American TV presenter and former scientist Jack Egan explaining plastic.

Egan, in the middle of his explanation, says:

The reason plastic can be good for us in the human body is that it is porous. So if we put a plastic bag on a table, water comes in, and that water makes the plastic bond.

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