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It takes significant period of time for a material to decompose completely, depending upon the type of material and the method of degradation.Ī paper towel may decompose in 2-4 weeks, and a plastic bag takes several thousand years to degrade and decompose completely. This will create awareness amongst people that this is also one of the reasons related to Global Green House Effect.ĭecomposition or Biodegradation is the chemical dissolution of materials through bacteria and other biological means. We request you, please share this piece of information in your network as much as you can. We offer products that last and that will help you reduce the amount of plastic you use.A message circulating on various social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter says that it takes years of time for the commonly used consumer wastes to decompose and that it effects the global green house effect badly. Here are the numbers we have found :Īt The Eco Fairy, our goal is to help you build a more sustainable life by offering you a line of reusable products. There is a lot of misleading information out there about how long it takes for waste to decompose. The glass they might contain takes 1-2 million years to decompose. If we recycle paper items, we can easily save a lot of landfill space.Įlectronic devices were made to resist decomposition, forever. But, based on volume, paper is the largest element in American landfills, taking up a lot of space and energy. Thankfully with paper, it only takes 2 – 6 weeks to completely decompose in a landfill. And according to some, it doesn’t decompose at all. When glass is thrown in landfills, it takes millions of years to decompose. ? Did you know? Even aluminum batteries take over 100 years to completely decompose. Rubber-boot soles can take up to 80 years.ĭ isposable diapers will take 250-500 years to decompose in a land fill.Įvery minute there are more than 120,000 aluminum cans being recycled in America and each one will take 80-200 years to completely decompose in a landfill. Nylon fabrics can take 30-40 years to break down. Wool clothing can take up to 5 years to break down. Just think, the plastic bags you get from the grocery store are only in use for a couple of hours, but will end up sitting in a landfill for up to a thousand years! In a landfill, plastic can take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Some take as long as 80 to 120 years to decompose and they usually float on top of dumps because of their flexible construction.Įvery year we use approximately 1.6 million barrels of oil just for producing plastic water bottles and they can take more than 450 years to decompose. P aint ed wood : it increases the decomposition time even further. S tandard wooden chair : it takes 13 years to decompose in a landfill. Let’s find out how long it takes for the major waste categories to decompose. It is sobering to realize just how long it takes for what we buy on a daily basis to break down. Landfills have become massive mountains of old furniture, appliances and other types of used junk that will one day be monuments to society’s throw away mentality for generations.įrom a sustainability perspective, wondering how long it takes various types of garbage to decompose is the first step in determining what types of items we need to consider reducing consumption of. For many larger cities there are no great options for getting rid of garbage.