How Long Does It Take Garbage to Decompose.docx - How Long...

How Long Does It Take Garbage to
Decompose?
•••
BY RICK LEBLANC
Updated May 10, 2018
From a sustainability perspective, answering the question of how long it takes various
types of garbage to decompose is important. In fact, we should reduce consumption of
products that generate waste materials that take a long time in landfills to get
completely decomposed.
Let’s see how long it really takes for various wastes to decompose in landfills (based on
waste category) with some relevant statistics. It should be noted that the rate of
decomposition can depend upon landfill conditions.
Plastic Waste
Plastic products are very common in our modern life. According to an estimate, every
year we use approximately 1.6 million barrels of oil just for producing plastic water
bottles. Plastic waste is one of many types of wastes that take too long to decompose.
Normally, plastic items can take up to 1000 years to decompose in landfills. But plastic
bags we use in our everyday life take 10-1000 years to decompose, while plastic bottles
can take 450 years or more .
Disposable Diapers
Just in the United States alone, every year more than 18 billion disposable diapers are
thrown away. These disposable diapers take approximately 250-500 years to
decompose in landfills, thus underscoring the efforts of programs offering diaper and
absorbent hygiene product recycling .

Aluminum Cans
Every minute, every day, more than 120,000 aluminum cans are recycled only in
America. But, at the same time, in every three-month period, enough aluminum cans
are thrown away in America that can rebuild the entire American commercial air fleet.
Aluminum cans take 80-200 years in landfills to get completely decomposed.
Glass
Normally glass is very easy to recycle mainly for the fact that glass is made of sand.
Simply breaking down the glass and melting it, we can produce new glass. But the
shocking fact is that if glass is thrown away in landfills, it takes million years to
decompose. And according to some sources, it doesn’t decompose at all.
Paper Waste