For some reason, last night I decided to research how long it takes stuff to decompose. When I was growing up, we never thought about stuff like this, at least my family and friends didn’t, despite the eco movement of the ‘70s.
When disposable diapers came out, everyone rejoiced. But, did you know it takes between 250 and 500 years for a disposable diaper to decompose (biodegrade if you will)? According to The Real Diaper Association, U.S. parents use about 27.4 billion disposable diapers a year. In case you were wondering, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that to be about 3.4 million tons of waste in a landfill.
Fortunately everything is not that…um…un-biodegradable. If you eat a banana today, it will take the peel about three to four weeks to decompose. A paper bag takes a month as does a newspaper. Cardboard takes a little bit longer – about two months.
You know the old joke about losing socks in the dryer? Well, if you lose a wool sock in a landfill, it will take up to a year for it to decompose.
Here are some things that take a really long time to decompose:
Cigarette butts – 1 – 5 years
Leather shoe – 45 years
Tinned steel can – 50 to 100 years
Aluminum can – 200 – 500 years
Plastic bags – 20 – 1000 years
Plastic jug – 1 million years
Glass – 1 – 2 million years
Styrofoam – > 1 million years
The bad news is Styrofoam is still used and we throw away about 25 billion Styrofoam products each year. And, if you reheat your food in Styrofoam, you risk the chance of getting toxins used to make the product.
The good news is that while it takes a long time for aluminum cans and glass to decompose, they can both be recycled. Aluminum cans can be recycled quickly and when recycled, you can make 20 with the amount of energy it would take to make one brand new one.