One particular discarded plastic snack bag caught the attention of parks workers cleaning a nature trail recently.
The vibrant yellow and red stood out and the playful, black block letters reading "Doritos" certainly looked familiar. However, under closer inspection the bag appeared to be 40 years old, Cape Lookout National Seashore officials said.
"The bag design looked 'odd' to us, but we couldn't put our finger on why until we noticed the date in the lower corner -- 1979," a post on social media read.
The bag was collected with other trash during a cleanup of storm debris on the beach along the Soundside nature trail on Harkers Island.
Doritos were launched in the mid-1960s by Frito-Lay with the nacho cheese-flavor introduced in 1972, according to the History of Doritos website. The company used a similar logo that appears on the bag from 1973 to 1979, according to the site.
Some commenters questioned the age of the bag, doubting the colors would have remained intact so long. Some posited that the snack bag was a newer “throwback” version.
"(Frito-Lay corporate office) confirmed that this is an original bag not a part of their current throwback marketing," park officials wrote on Facebook.
But, after all this time, the bag still was not thrown away -- it was framed and hangs on the park’s office wall.
“While this was sort of a neat find due to its age, it serves as a reminder that plastic trash lasts a long time,” officials wrote.
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