Why recycle you ask? Well, maybe how long somthing takes to decompose in a landfill is answer enough. The Tree Hugging Family posted some figures the other day that really make you think and will hopefully inspire you to take some action to go green.
How long will it take to decompose…
Cotton rags = 1 to 5 months
Paper = 2 to 5 months
Rope = 3 to 14 months
Orange peels = 6 months
Wool socks = 1 to 5 years
Cigarette butts = 1 to 12 years
Plastic coated paper milk cartons = 5 years
Leather shoes = 25 to 40 years
Nylon fabric = 30 to 40 years
Tin cans = 50 to 100 years
Aluminum cans = 80 to 100 years
Plastic 6-pack holder rings = 450 years
Glass bottles = 1 million years
Plastic bottles = Forever
Also, to learn more about how scientists date the decomposition process read Will My Plastic Bag Still Be Here in 2507. Super awesome article!
We’re a totally green family, all the way! My wife & I are absolutley committed to not wasting one sheet of paper unless it can be recycled. We constantly dig through our own household trash to make sure we filter out anything that can be recycled or reused. Having the Chesapeake Bay literally in our back yard, we can see the harmful effects that we all contributed too over the decades, on our natural resources. But it doesn’t have to stay that way, and if each of us did a very small part, like buying green-friendly home products, to reduce the harmfuls chemicals that seep into the ground water and eventually into the Bay & Oceans, not only will out homes be healthier but the entire plant too.
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Great job! I love how easily you convey your information and make it such a quick read!
woww.! amazin you helped me do my report
pretty useful information. Thanks! i like teh green theme of the site too. well done.
Great post but i feel exceptionally guilty now. Ive lost count off the amount of socks and shoes that ive chucked out over the years! (before the ‘green enlightenment’) – i must have contributed several thousand years of decompostion time – sorry Planet Earth, im trying to make up for it now!
Wow I didn’t know plastic bottles never decompose, you learn a new thing every day!
Plastic bottles will be here longer then humans are…
Information awareness regarding the period of time spent on each kind of material should be widespread so that more people will come to understand the importance of recycling. Most of the things that we have at home or office can be reused or recycled, we just need the right information on how to do this properly so that we can help lessen the garbage accumulated in landfills today.
Clearly, we do not suffer from the problem of not having many materials to work – instead, we suffer from the result of not being able to reuse or recycle the things that we have now. This is why most landfills all around the world are getting full with items that can still be saved and used for other purposes. What we lack is t he right information on how to handle the containers and other paper products after utilizing them for their original purposes. The trash bin should not be the only things we think of after using them – we can even cut costs if we learn to conserve the things that we make use of regularly.
Well, the plastic bottles will survive the tsunami too.
We humans should take interest in recycling activities.
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