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Let's Talk About Trash!
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[Recycling]
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Maybe it's not the most pleasant subject to talk about but it sure is important. And actually, its very interesting.
How Long Does Trash Last?
Have you ever thought about how long a piece of garbage will last after you throw it away? It doesn’t just disappear. It may remain in the ground for a long, long time.
Here’s how long scientists think it may take certain items in our garbage to decompose in a landfill:
(These times will vary depending on soil
and moisture conditions.)
- banana – 3 to 4 weeks
- paper bag – 1 month
- cotton rag – 5 months
- wool sock – 1 year
- cigarette butt – 2 to 5 years
- leather boot – 40 to 50 years
- rubber sole (of a boot) – 50 to 80 years
- tin can (soup or vegetable can) – 80 to 100 years
- aluminum can (soda pop can) – 200 to 500 years
- plastic 6-pack rings – 450 years
- plastic jug – 1 million years
- Styrofoam cup – unknown? forever?
- glass bottle – unknown? forever?
 
WOW! Forever is a long time! And just think, we each throw away garbage everyday! But what can we do?
That's what William Rathje, a garbologist, wants to know!
What On Earth is a “Garbologist”?
Maybe you’d like to be one when you grow up!
Well, meet William Rathje, a professor at the University of Arizona. He is the founder and Director of the Garbage Project, which conducts archaeological studies of modern trash. This University of Arizona profes¬sor and his students have been collecting information about solid waste since 1973.
- Rathje and his team found newspapers from the late 1970s that were still readable.
- Rathje’s research also shows that for some kinds of organic garbage biodegradation (the rotting process) works for a while and then slows down or stops.
- For other kinds, it never starts to break down at all.
- Rathje and his team of garbologists plan to conduct more digs to find out why paper and other organic waste degrade slowly in landfills.
“It’s not a pleasant task,” Rathje says, “but someone has to do it.”
Find out more about garbage and landfills from this great website!
Basic Banana Science
If you were to throw a banana peel on the ground and come back to look at it a week later, do you think it would look different?
Sure it would. It would probably be black and dry or brown and mushy. That’s because it’s decomposing.
What causes something to decompose?
Decomposition happens when trash breaks down into its natural elements. Do you know what's needed to help trash decompose?
- Moisture
- Air (oxygen)
- Sunlight
But at a landfill, we try to keep these elements out. Why?
- Moisture, like rainwater or liquids in the trash, can carry harmful chemicals from the trash into the groundwater below.
- Air takes up space—space that we'd rather fill with trash so that our landfill will last as long as possible.
- Sunlight is blocked from the landfill when we add the new garbage each day.
So, while some of the trash in a landfill will eventually decompose, it will take a lot longer since we've nearly eliminated the necessary ingredients: moisture, air and sunlight.
And some of the trash won’t ever break down as we see in the list above.
Learn more about using plastic products!
Find out what chemicals are lurking in YOUR house and get rid of them!
Look for fun and adventure at The National Geographic Store!
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