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How Long Does It Take For Trash to Biodegrade?

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Life Span of Litter 

  • Aluminum Can  200-500 years
  • Batteries – 100 years 
  • Cardboard Box- 4 weeks 
  • Cigarette Butt up to 10 years 
  • Cotton Rag- 1-5 months 
  • Disposable Diapers- 500-600 years  years 
  • Glass Bottle  1Million years
  • Leather- up to 50 years
  • Lumber- 10-15 years 
  • Monofilament Fishing Line- 800 years 
  • Milk Cartons (plastic coated) 5 years 
  • Nylon Fabric- 30-40 years 
  • Orange Peel- 2-5 weeks
  • Paper-2-5 months 
  • Plastic Film Container- 20-30 years
  • Painted Wooden Stake- 13 years 
  • Plastic 6 pack cover  450 years
  • Plastic Bag- up to 500 years 
  • Plastic Coated Paper- 5 years
  • Plastic Soda Bottles- Forever 
  • Rope-3-14 months 
  • Rubber Boot sole 50-80 years 
  • Sanitary Pads= 500-800 years 
  • Styrofoam- More than 5,000 years 
  • Tin Cans-50-100 years 
  • Tin Foil- It does not biodegrade 
  • Wool Clothing- 1-5 years

Landfill Waste 2003

  • 970 thousand tons of paper cups and plates were discarded in 2003 (EPA).
  • 64 billion paper cups and plates being thrown away every year in USA. 
  • 730 thousand tons of styrofoam and plastic plates and cups (710 thousand tons were styrofoam)
  • 73 billion mostly styrofoam cups and plates being thrown away every year in USA. 
  • 3,810 thousand tons of plastic containers & bottles were thrown away in 2003. 
  • 90 billion plastic containers & bottles being landfilled or incinerated every year. 

The above numbers do not include trash bags, grocery bags and other plastic materials like trays, utensils, clam shells, caps and other plastic packaging. A total of 8000 thousand tons of these items were discarded in 2003. 

 


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Comments

  2. The statistics came from wikipedia, America the Beautiful, most Trash Trivia games. These seem to be the standards that were set about 10 years ago.

  3. You need to get your “science” from someplace other than Wikipedia, because your figures are preposterous.

    Whose guess was it that plastic bottles never biodegrade? Everything biodegrades.

  7. What are the tests done in order to know this? How do scientists know how long it takes for things to decompose?

  8. The earth will cease to exist in the next 90 years a predicted by some of the worlds top scientists including professor John Brown and Lord Martin Rees as well as many others. Yet we cannot accept the fact that the next few generations ahead will face the consequences that we have caused and are too ignorant to change. We have to alter the way we see the worldbecayse if we don’t life on earth will die out.

  9. Plastic does NOT biodegrade, because it is not make of organic matter. It simple breaks into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic until, after who knows how long, it is finally broken down to it’s molecular level. The molecules eventually break down into atoms, and the plastic no longer is plastic. Look in any scientific book about plastic, and you will find this information.

  10. AMAZING!! Thanks sooo much, you cited it, it is pretty useful information, and your site looks great! It was very useful for my science fair project and helped a lot. So once again thanks so much for this site! <3

  11. wow! great information: this was very helpful for a school project i had to do on biodegradeble materials and worm bins…best site I found on the internet! thanks so much!

  12. Dose anyone know what a plastic water bottle is made of and why it takes a long time to decompose?????? Just curious.

  15. this is a good site i think about stuff that biodegrades or not and if it biodegrades you can eat it because it’s awesome

  20. Any time you put information up, you should be prepared to cite where the information came from so that 1) we know you did your research and 2) you allow each person using your resource to read the original materials.

    Additionally….

    Do scientists truly know all their is to know about this world? You should always be looking for the innovators who specialize in their field and are pushing the limits of what is considered a standard.

    During my research on this topic, I have seen these numbers regurgitated like doctrine on several sites. While many people write from place of integrity and good intentions on Wikipedia, it is not the original source. The same with this page. It is well intended but the information is pulled from old second-third-fourth hand 10-year old data that has been posted on Wikipedia.

    Don’t look for the easy answer…

  21. OMG… you people can’t even agree with one another!
    You site contradictory claims & site Wikipedia like it was gospel.
    Yet apparently you never bother to read Wikipedia!

    One of you says.. “Plastic does NOT biodegrade, because it is not make of organic matter. It simple breaks into smaller and smaller pieces of plastic until, after who knows how long, it is finally broken down to it’s molecular level.”

    Wikipedia says “A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids that are malleable. Plastics are typically organic polymers of high molecular mass” Note the word ORGANIC is used. If you search crude oil Wikipedia also says it is ORGANIC as well.

    Another of you claims… “The earth will cease to exist in the next 90 years a predicted by some of the worlds top scientists including professor John Brown and Lord Martin Rees as well as many others. ”

    My reply… “If we only have 90 years remaining.. what difference does it make if we try to stop our carbon footprint or plastic production or any of the calamities blamed on humanity by your types? Think about it… enjoy the remaining 90 years & then the earth will be purged of humanity & life will recover & after a million or so years.. dinasours will once again roam free & all will be well again… LMAO!

  23. I THINK THAT EVERYONE SHOULD RECYCLE IT SHOULDN’T MADDER HOW LONG IT TAKES FOR SOMETHING TO BIODEGRADE YOU CAN RECYCLE IT PLEASE RECYCLE IT WILL HELP!!!!!!!!!!!

Trackbacks

  1. […] The concentration of industry and people in cities meant that wastes accumulated in small areas and needed to be collected and transported outside the cities. The invention of plastics brought significant benefits to consumers, but also created problems because it can take thousands of years for plastics to decompose. Some plastics can be recovered and recycled, but others cannot. In fact, according to specialists, some types of plastics (such as soda bottles) will hang around forever. […]

  5. […] Most people surveyed say people littler because there aren’t enough trash cans. Funny, considering most littering happens within 6 yards from a trash can. This is crazy! If the fact that littler can destroy the environment and healthy communities doesn’t sway you, listen to the economic factors. In 2005, the lost scrap value of 135 billion wasted beverage bottles and cans exceeded $2.1 billion. This means that had these containers been recycled instead of trashed they would have been worth over $2.1 billion on the market. Also, litter cleanup costs the U.S. alone almost $11.5 billion each year. With these stats alone that would be $13 billion in the U.S. economy that we are currently wasting on litter! Enough said, please don’t litter and please spread the word! For a list of the life span of litter click here. […]

  6. […] Although my teacher got an “F” on the bean assignment, she is not alone. On a daily basis we use objects to our advantage and do not consider their complete lifecycle. We dispose of objects without regard to where the materials were extracted from (this goes way beyond reading the label that may state “Made in China”), where the object will end up after it’s used, and what persons or community will be effected by your use of such an object. Of the slogan “Reduce. Reuse. Recycle,” reducing and reusing are key, which is why I give complete props to Krista’s post about reducing the amount of materials purchased and produce, by reusing other’s second hand items, and keeping them out of the landfills. […]