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How Long Does Trash Really Last?
divinecaroline.com — The three necessary components for decomposition —sunlight, moisture, oxygen—are hard to come by in a landfill; items are more likely to mummify than to break down. But how long do things last?
stignordas- 605 diggs
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- BobDell, on 05/21/2008, -1/+26nice to know that my dog's poo will still be hanging out in individually wrapped packages in 500 years.
- allisonaxe, on 05/21/2008, -7/+4not to sound like a total tool, but that's the reason I refuse to pick up my dog's crap, despite laws against it, and yes, it has less to do with being lazy (though thats true also.) ok, so there's a slightly unsightly lump of dog crap on the lawn. big deal, its better than a bag of dog crap sitting and *not* going back to nature for the next 500 years.
- unreg, on 05/21/2008, -1/+6Mind if I stop by and drop a deuce on your front lawn?
Have a little courtesy, pick it up and toss it under a bush or in the gutter.
Thanks- allisonaxe, on 05/22/2008, -0/+1you're a human, use a toilet, or ***** on your own lawn.
- unreg, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1Your dog is trespassing, mind if I shoot it?
- unreg, on 05/21/2008, -1/+6Mind if I stop by and drop a deuce on your front lawn?
- thcobbs, on 05/21/2008, -1/+5Makes you wonder what future archaeologists will think of OUR midden heaps....
- Tomchei, on 05/21/2008, -0/+3The article makes it sound like a landfill is just a big hole then covered up.
If they read about waste management, they might actually learn something. - brentinkc, on 05/21/2008, -0/+1Dude, do you wrap up your turds and put them in the trashcan? Put your ***** in the toilet. Don't wrap it up first.
- elementop, on 05/21/2008, -0/+2I just run it over with the lawnmower to turn it into mulch ;)
- allisonaxe, on 05/21/2008, -7/+4not to sound like a total tool, but that's the reason I refuse to pick up my dog's crap, despite laws against it, and yes, it has less to do with being lazy (though thats true also.) ok, so there's a slightly unsightly lump of dog crap on the lawn. big deal, its better than a bag of dog crap sitting and *not* going back to nature for the next 500 years.
- DiggieDarko, on 05/21/2008, -15/+8I'm actually relieved to hear cigarette butts take 1-5 years to decompose. A friend of mine was convinced they take decades, and always gave me a hard time for throwing them in the street. But I still wouldn't leave them in the sand at the beach.
- ratexla, on 05/21/2008, -0/+7Picking them off the street is not excessively fun either. But thanks for keeping them off the beach. :p
- scorpionsf, on 05/21/2008, -0/+4Take responsibility for your trash. When you throw your cigarettes anywhere except a trash bin you are littering! It's plain laziness and a lack of consideration for others and the environment when you just throw your cigarette butts anywhere you want!
- egyptianlover, on 05/21/2008, -2/+26This article gives the false impression that glass is somehow worse than plastic. glass is just silica, and eventually breaks down to it's mineral components (at least when it's exposed to the elements). Plastic breaks up, especially in the presence of light, but it can't even be digested by bacteria, and it remains, essentially forever, toxic to life.
- arcticblue, on 05/21/2008, -1/+9There are some GM bacteria that can digest plastic. I heard that they were going to use them in landfills, but I haven't heard anything about that recently.
- mayavada, on 05/21/2008, -1/+8that's fascinating. but also a little like swallowing a genetically modified spider to swallow the petrochemical fly. i don't know why we swallowed the fly, perhaps we'll die.
- mem2, on 05/21/2008, -1/+4solution, swallow a mutant radioactive bird to catch the spider which I swallowed to catch the petrochemical fly. i don't know why we swallowed the fly, perhaps we'll die.
- mayavada, on 05/21/2008, -1/+8that's fascinating. but also a little like swallowing a genetically modified spider to swallow the petrochemical fly. i don't know why we swallowed the fly, perhaps we'll die.
- unreg, on 05/21/2008, -0/+7Glass doesn't break down when exposed to the elements. If it did we'd have a banner business with window replacements.
For the most part it's inert. It has the same impact as a rock.
- arcticblue, on 05/21/2008, -1/+9There are some GM bacteria that can digest plastic. I heard that they were going to use them in landfills, but I haven't heard anything about that recently.
- MariaEspanol, on 05/21/2008, -4/+4landfills are constructed in a way in that all but the food will be there for millennia. if humanity survives that long.
- BoneheadFarker, on 05/21/2008, -2/+6*****. After a landfill is in use for 30 years or so, they cover it up with a ton of dirt and put something on top. A golf course, a ski hill...something that people want, but something that won't have to be placed where people want to live. Landfills aren't just a barren desert devoid of life after they are decommissioned.
And you hate landfills so much, I assume that you live a zero-footprint lifestyle. Otherwise, you're a ***** hypocrite...- unreg, on 05/21/2008, -1/+3Wow, you read a lot into his two line response.
- BoneheadFarker, on 05/21/2008, -1/+5Meh...I see people like her all the time. Landfills are seen as these huge wastelands owned by evil unscrupulous people. But instead of researching about landfills, they'd rather bitch and complain as they take their 5 bags of garbage out to the curb. The worse ones are the ones who recycle thinking they are saving the environment, when in reality many recycling operations are more damaging to the environment then creating new products.
If more people new about what landfills are really all about, there wouldn't be so many people bitching about landfills. - mayavada, on 05/21/2008, -0/+2cover it with a golf course, ski hill, etc... and a ton of dirt. does that mean the landfill contents *won't* be there for thousands of years? egyptian mummies and artifacts are pretty much intact 3000 years later. so lots of plastic packaging, chemicals, whatever makes it to the landfill (including lots of things that are considered hazardous substances) are sealed, covered, stay there forever...
- BoneheadFarker, on 05/21/2008, -1/+5Meh...I see people like her all the time. Landfills are seen as these huge wastelands owned by evil unscrupulous people. But instead of researching about landfills, they'd rather bitch and complain as they take their 5 bags of garbage out to the curb. The worse ones are the ones who recycle thinking they are saving the environment, when in reality many recycling operations are more damaging to the environment then creating new products.
- unreg, on 05/21/2008, -1/+3Wow, you read a lot into his two line response.
- BoneheadFarker, on 05/21/2008, -2/+6*****. After a landfill is in use for 30 years or so, they cover it up with a ton of dirt and put something on top. A golf course, a ski hill...something that people want, but something that won't have to be placed where people want to live. Landfills aren't just a barren desert devoid of life after they are decommissioned.
- darthswarthy, on 05/21/2008, -8/+3No mention of nuclear waste?
- Papajohn56, on 05/21/2008, -0/+3uh, look up radioactive decay
- unreg, on 05/21/2008, -0/+3Nucelar waste has a nice, predictable life based on its rate of decay.
- Mothrog, on 05/21/2008, -0/+2You don't send nuclear waste to a landfill.
- Motivaaator, on 05/21/2008, -3/+18How long? Long enough to be someone else's problem.
- Emma1989, on 05/21/2008, -8/+2Say NO to plastic!
- greatgatsbyII, on 05/21/2008, -2/+238 years in office.
- mem2, on 05/21/2008, -0/+4Funny as, though to be an annoying stickler he was rotten and decaying when he came into office.
- Isotope, on 05/21/2008, -0/+7Most landfills now recycle the leachate that is produced back into the landfill so that things will decompose a lot faster. Sure, it takes a long time for these things to completely decompose, but landfills do their part and contain whatever toxins that may be produced rather efficiently. Most landfills I've been around (my construction company builds new cells for landfills in the northwest) have a life of about 35 years before being reclaimed for agricultural use. Also, more and more landfills are converting the methane produced into cheap energy.
- renemartini, on 05/21/2008, -2/+3I have to disagree about the last comment of building over landfills, I read an article from reputable magazine (I am trying to recall Scientific America? and news media covered this). Its quite cheap to build over landfills and profitable because all that crap buried underground releases methane which is use for power while the land can become gold resort. What I really need to do is find easier way to recycle whats not recycled electronics.
- jordn, on 05/21/2008, -4/+2building over landfills? not a clever idea. Subsidence would be highly likely to occur as the matter in the landfill begins to decay, and if the methane in the landfill isn't piped away or released into the atmosphere, you have a potential explosion on your hands.
- sockpuppets, on 05/21/2008, -2/+25This is why I offer my dates the choice of paper or plastic, although the plastic bags have to have the air holes cut just right or else they suffocate.
- psion01, on 05/21/2008, -0/+4Super! That means when the technology is available to extract useful elements from trash, there'll be no shortage of dumps to mine.
- Haoie, on 05/21/2008, -1/+1The unfortunate thing is that the human mind can't really comprehend readily time spans of that length.
Hundreds of years, thousands of years. It doesn't matter to most people. - perudo, on 05/21/2008, -0/+3Scientists have already found bacteria that eat certain plastics, and other such waste products and byproducts. So im sure in no time more will be discovered and all of this will blow over.
http://www.ontariogenomics.ca/education/episode8.a ... - Porch, on 05/21/2008, -0/+6We I go out hunting for old mining shafts in the desert, I often come across old trash from the 1950s. Some bottles look melted from the heat, but others are just fine and loon new, even after sitting in the sun for 50 years. Metal cans are mostly gone by this point. Now and then, I find old cars. Model A and T driven far out into the desert where no roads existed at that point, only to be left to be reabsorbed back into the earth. I would not be surprised that in another 50 years, nothing but bits of rust on the ground would be left.
I even found old news papers showing the broadcast times of Jack Benny, but those are in the mines and protected from all but rodents looking for nesting.
I am not worried about the metal, glass or paper. All those are harmless. It's the stuff in plastic that might cause us problems in the future. - SniperAlf22, on 05/21/2008, -3/+3Wonderful article. It's always useful when your first three items with the shocking amounts of time also contain the word "unknown" or in the case of the first item "we don't actually know". Typical ignorant stuff.
- MRCAB, on 05/21/2008, -7/+3Why did I bury this article-- Unknown, Possibly LAME
_ - TonyTheTerrible, on 05/21/2008, -6/+2recycling is the answer
the idea of burying our trash in the ground is an idea i still dont comprehend- AlpineR, on 05/21/2008, -0/+3What's wrong with burying trash? Does the Earth really have a shortage of ground to dig holes in? I'd rather have our toxic materials stored away than decomposing into my food and water supply.
Sometimes trash has valuable materials in it and then it makes sense to recycle. But if it takes less energy/money to make new material than to recycle, bury it and start over. - sv650touring, on 05/21/2008, -0/+3In theory recycling is great - just not for everything. For instance recycling plastic is basically nonsense that produces its own toxins and costs a ton more in energy and labor than just burying it with no worthwhile product to show for it. I mean, unless you thing we need more packing peanuts, which themselves will just be buried after one use.
OTOH, recycling valuable metals (aluminum, copper) keeps them out of the landfill and saves energy and money.
- AlpineR, on 05/21/2008, -0/+3What's wrong with burying trash? Does the Earth really have a shortage of ground to dig holes in? I'd rather have our toxic materials stored away than decomposing into my food and water supply.
- bipolarruledout, on 05/21/2008, -1/+2I can tell you which I would rather have sticking around and it's glass. Plastic degrades into some nasty cancerious crap.
http://www.vbs.tv/video.php?id=1485308505 - dojonz, on 05/21/2008, -2/+2Depends?.. which of the southern states are we talking about here?
- Seventus, on 05/21/2008, -3/+2This is all the more reason why the government should work on making highly accessible recycling centers, and consider making stricter recycling requirements on individuals. All of this talk of recycling does nothing if it's difficult to get to.
- zadadka, on 05/21/2008, -2/+3Remember Pixar's "Monsters Inc", and the clamped/bolted-down device the CDA used to vapourise that sock?
That's what we need for the non-rottables.
It's either that or we start sending stuff into off the Sun for incineration....... - prezzy, on 05/21/2008, -2/+4how long will divine caroline last?
- jstohler, on 05/21/2008, -0/+3Today's lesson: Compost and recycle.
- dreamstretch, on 05/21/2008, -1/+2So, everything degrades much more slowly in landfills?
Just throw it on the ground then. - TheMachine1, on 05/21/2008, -0/+0If carbon dioxide and methane(a super green house gas) are the products of bio-decomposition its seem we do not want his stuff breaking down fast. Granted recycling more would be better. But as the article is written this is more false doom and gloom.
- DesertTripper, on 05/21/2008, -0/+2Wow, Porch, a fellow mine explorer! I have a lot of pics you might be interested in. I belonged to a (now defunct) mine exploring club a few years ago and we went to some doozies in the Mojave and elsewhere. One time we went to a mine in NV (the Silver Dyke) and way back in there I found a newspaper from the 30s, in almost perfect condition, and was about to add it to my collection when a fellow mine explorer pointed out the 50-year-old skid marks. Yecch!
Back to the article... Here in CA, ladnfills are unsightly artificial mountains that grow up from whereever they are started. I don't know what they plan to do with them when they are full but they sure look bad now. Some of the larger ones are melded into natural mountains and don't look quite so bad. The big ones produce energy from waste gases so there must be some decomposition going on down there.
That said, landfilling is still a primitive and poor way to deal with garbage. In CA the hype for recycling is still, "Bottles and Cans, Bottles and Cans." They need to widen the horizons a bit. How about finding ways to recycle things like disposable diapers and paper towels? Those make up much more landfill waste than bottles and cans, though, as we know, bottles and cans stay around much longer.- Myztry, on 05/21/2008, -0/+2Our company recycles industrial nappy offcuts in Australia. Clean material. The problem with using nappy plastic is it has a polymer water absorber in it. When the recycled plastic items are left out in the rain, the absorber leeches out like snot. It's harmless (even to a baby's bum) but limits the applications where it can be used.
- lordmetroid, on 05/21/2008, -0/+2Actually as one scavenge around the flood bed and picks up a glass bottle that has been lying there for some time, it is really brittle and breaks easily.
- Ghstfce, on 05/21/2008, -0/+2Hmmm... Britney Spear's career lasted so far what? 10 years?
- SirFoxx, on 05/21/2008, -0/+2We need replicators like on Star Trek. They used the refuge and trash produced to make whatever they needed in the replicators.:)
- ohcoaster, on 05/21/2008, -0/+2"Even newer bottles that claim to be biodegradable or photodegradable..."
Claim to be photo-degradable? Since when is leaching chemicals into the drink in sunlight a selling point?- Myztry, on 05/21/2008, -0/+2Plastic degrades naturally in UV light. In order to stop that, you need to add UV stabilizers. In fact for economical recycling, the existing stabilizers add to the desirability of the recycled plastic which is likely to have an exposed application (plastic lumber, etc.)
- josh68684, on 05/21/2008, -0/+0How long does it take? I does not matter,
I usally just burn it in my back yard- LegalizeGanja, on 05/21/2008, -1/+0It's a good thing that everyone doesn't follow your example. If everyone did, we'd already be dead from the huge toxic garbage cloud.
- jwd45244, on 05/21/2008, -0/+0If you have things in a landfill decomposing at all, then you have a broken landfill.
- Myztry, on 05/21/2008, -0/+2A lot of landfills are built on water courses, either erosion carved or on slopes. They are not exactly keen to go digging on flat ground, just to fill it again.
I know the landfills are capped, but I'd be more worried about the ground water. Heavy than air toxins tend to go down. And it's not the rubbish vessels that I see as a concern. It's the remnants of the contents.
We recycled AU$6 million of plastic last year. A lot of it post consumer waste. Let's just say the collect plastics are not exactly in a clean state, or for that matter, empty. - number2jcb, on 05/21/2008, -2/+2Why are so many DivineCaroline.com articles making it to the top these days? I have yet to see one front page worthy.
- Monkeydew06, on 05/21/2008, -0/+9I love the lack of scientific content. Unknown is not a measurement of time to be compared to 1 million years.
- Barackalypse, on 05/21/2008, -1/+1So the life cycle of trash is now considered part of "life in your words". Stick to hackneyed relationship generalizations DivineCaroline.com. Buried because you suck (the collective you).
- bbqsalad, on 05/21/2008, -3/+18 years thanks to ignorant voters.
- BeardedTacoFish, on 05/23/2008, -0/+1Half of them are "unknown", WTF.
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