Here’s How Long Your Trash Takes to Decompose

Author : Amal Rahiman

It’s a hot sunny day, and so you crave an iced drink. You stop at your favourite juice stall to order a fresh cold cocktail. Within 15 minutes you drain your drink and throw it in the nearest trashcan, not wanting to litter. You then go about your day forgetting the plastic cup and its straw.

Your trash along with many others’ waits in the trashcan till their time comes to leave in the big truck. Once the big truck picks them up, they are then on for a long journey to the outskirts of the city. A huge space of land is kept aside to dump all this trash in. Your cup and straw will be dumped into this landfill. This will now be their forever home.

Humans may live and die in the time it takes for the cup and straw to decompose, but that is the harsh truth. It takes almost 200 years for a simple straw to disintegrate. Imagine how many straws you must have used in your lifetime. Multiply that into 7 billion- and that’s how many straws are left to decompose in the straining landfills.

In India, we do not have a proper waste management system. Most of the trash is dumped on the outskirts of the city, where it either catches fire due to overcrowding, or it releases toxic chemicals that can cause harm to human life. A negligible amount of trash is treated or sorted out, before being dumped. Less than 5% is recycled. 62 million tonnes of waste are what India generates.
 

Are our landfills able to hold so much waste?

Most definitely not. We have a huge waste problem in India, that doesn’t seem to go away soon. The only possible thing we could do is be conscious of our waste generation.

Reuse and recycle whatever possible. Reduce non-biodegradable waste (especially plastic!). Look for recycling centres for electronic waste, so that much of the waste is kept away from the landfill. Make a compost pit at home for food waste. Be mindful of everything you throw.

A cup and a straw are not the only trash that lives on for 2 centuries. Let’s have a look at our most common trash, and how many years it takes for them to decompose

1. Tin: One of the most commonly used materials for packaging food. It is also used in electronics and takes about 50 years to decompose.
2. Nylon Clothes: It takes about 30-40 years for your old clothes and gym wear to decompose. Consider donating clothes instead.
3. Tires: A whooping 2000 years for a simple tire to break down. Once it breaks down, it releases harmful chemicals and metals like lead, which is dangerous for the people living around landfills. It leads to pollution of soil and groundwater.
4. Wet Wipes: The most needed accessory for removing makeup, diaper changes, and quick household clean-ups. But even though the usage is quick, each wipe takes about 100 years to completely disintegrate. Honestly, it’s much better to use a towel and water instead!
5. Plastic bags: A 1000 years. That’s how long it takes for plastic bags to disintegrate. We use it for barely 5 minutes a day. Does it seem worth it?
6. Cigarette Butts: Something that seems to decorate our alleyways, shop corners, and beaches. Nobody thinks much of simply flicking away a cigarette butt from their car, or after their tea. But it takes about 18 months to 10 years for this small piece of waste to break down.
7. Cotton t-shirts: Albeit it takes a shorter time than plastic to decompose, with just 6 months, it still can be avoided if cotton clothes are recycled or donated instead.
8. Aluminium cans: 80-100 years for them to start breaking down, but it takes centuries to completely disintegrate. But it can be easily recycled.
9. Sanitary pads and tampons: Most of these contain a lining of plastic to prevent leakages, and thus take more than 25 years to completely break down. In some countries, pads are flushed down the toilets, which makes it even worse, as they can end up in the oceans.
10. Latex gloves: Synthetic latex, unlike natural latex, can take several decades to disintegrate. Natural latex can break down in a few months’ time.
11. Paper waste: Usually breaks down in a few weeks’ time and is another material that can be easily recycled.
12. Food waste: Depending on what the food is, it can either take several months to several years to decompose, or it can stay preserved for a long time. It would be a better idea to use food scraps as manure for a home compost pit.
13. Shoes: It takes about 24-40 years for leather to break down. As it breaks down, chemical dyes, glues, and other additives pollute the soil and groundwater.
14. Cardboard: Similar to paper waste, cardboard takes around a few weeks to a few months to break down. It can also be recycled, reused, or even used for the compost pit.
15. Paper towels: Decomposing paper towels is not the issue, as it decomposes within a few weeks’ time. However, manufacturing paper towels means cutting down precious trees, which can lead to deforestation and climate change. It is better advised to use reusable cloth napkins.
16. Diapers: The 3rd most common trash item found in landfills. It is non-biodegradable and takes about 500 years to fully break down.
17. Plywood: A very common material found in Indian households, plywood takes about 1-3 years to fully decompose unless it contains glue, in which case it will take slightly longer to break down.
18. Batteries: Common alkaline batteries take about 100 years to fully break down. However, rechargeable batteries and other industrial use batteries must be given to an e-waste recycling centre for proper disposal.
19. Ink cartridges: it takes around 1000 years to disintegrate, and not only is that bad, but as it decomposes, it leaks chemicals into the soil and water, making them even more harmful to the environment.
20. Seat cushions: The cushions you would find in car seats, and furniture takes around 1000 years to break down, as they are mostly made out of polyurethane.
21. Glass: This might be surprising to know, but glass takes more than a million years to decompose. It’s fragile, breaks easily, and can be powdered down to minuscule particles, but it takes a long time to decompose.
22. Aluminium foil: Never! That’s right, aluminium foil never decomposes, but can be easily reused and recycled.
23. Foamed plastic cups: Your favourite snack cups take about 50 years to decompose, still slightly faster than plastic waste.
24. Plastic bottles: Takes about 450 years to decompose. But it can easily be recycled and reused.
25. Wool: Clothing made out of wool takes about 1-5 years to decompose.
26. Rope: Common natural rope disintegrates within 2 years, provided it’s not mixed up with synthetic materials.
27. Thread: It takes about 3-4 months to fully disintegrate. Although it doesn’t take up much space, it piles up quickly.
28. Iron: It takes several years for iron to oxidize completely.
29. Synthetic fabric: It takes over 100 years for synthetic fabrics to break down. This is also why fashion waste is a huge problem for modern society.
30. Straws: One of the most talked about waste in recent time. It takes 200 years for a straw to decompose. Something that seems so harmless yet is a cause of major concern.

Waste should be managed properly, by recycling and reusing whatever can be recycled and reused. Landfills are filling up at a rate much faster than waste can decompose, and it is up to us to take care of our waste however we can.
 

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