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By: Rick LeBlanc
From a sustainability perspective, it's important to know how long it takes various types of garbage to decompose. We should focus our efforts especially on reducing the consumption of products that generate waste materials that take a long time to completely break down.
Let’s review how long it takes for various waste categories to decompose in landfills, along with some relevant statistics.
- Plastic Waste
Plastic products are very common in our modern life. According to the Pacific Institute, we used approximately 17 million barrels of oil just for producing plastic water bottles in 2006. Plastic waste is one of many types of wastes that take too long to decompose. Normally, plastic items can take up to 1,000 years to decompose in landfills. Even plastic bags we use in our everyday life take anywhere from 10 to 1,000 years to decompose, and plastic bottles can take 450 years or more.
- Disposable Diapers
In the United States alone, about 3.3 million tons of disposable diapers were thrown away in 2018. These disposable diapers take approximately 250-500 years to decompose in landfills, thus underscoring the importance of programs offering diaper and absorbent hygiene product recycling.
- Aluminum Cans
About 42.7 billion aluminum cans, over 81,000 cans per minute, were recycled in America in 2019. But, at the same time, in every three-month period in the U.S., enough aluminum cans and packaging are thrown away—2.66 billion tons in 2018—to rebuild the entire American commercial air fleet. Aluminum cans take 80-100 years in landfills to completely decompose.
- Glass
Glass is normally very easy to recycle due to the fact that it's made of sand. By 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 a million years to decompose. And according to some sources, it doesn’t decompose at all.
- Paper Waste
Paper is the largest element in American municipal solid waste. Normally, it takes two to six weeks in a landfill to get completely decomposed, but can take decades, depending on moisture levels within the landfill. Recycling paper items saves a lot of landfill space while also reducing the energy and virgin material usage demanded by making non-recycled paper. Recycling paper items saves a lot of landfill space while also reducing the energy and virgin material usage demanded by making non-recycled paper.
- Food Waste
Food is the second largest waste item in American landfills. The time taken for food waste decomposition depends on the type of food. Normally, an orange peel takes six months, while an apple core takes around two months, and a banana peel takes two to 10 days, to decompose. Composting and food waste recycling are great ways to divert food waste away from landfills.
- Other Waste Items
Different sources have different information on the actual time various waste items take to decompose. Here are some estimates for common waste items:
| Waste Item | Decomposition Time |
|---|---|
| Cigarette butts | 10-12 years |
| Monofilament fishing line | 600 years |
| Rubber boot soles | 50-80 years |
| Foamed plastic cups | 50 years |
| Leather shoes | 25-40 years |
| Milk cartons | 5 years |
| Plywood | 1-3 years |
| Cotton gloves | 3 months |
| Cardboard | 2 months |
| Styrofoam | Does not biodegrade |
| Nylon fabric | 30-40 years |
| Tin can | 50 years |
| Ropes | 3-14 months |
| Aluminum cans | 80-100 years |
| Train tickets | 2 weeks |
| Batteries | 100 years |
| Sanitary pads | 500-800 years |
| Wool clothing | 1-5 years |
| Tinfoil | Does not biodegrade |
- Final Note
The increasing volume of waste is a major concern for humans and the environment. The best way to deal with this problem is to avoid products that generate waste materials that take more than a year to decompose in landfills. Every household and organization should also have a proactive plan for recycling to divert more materials away from the waste stream.
