The Life of Litter

Photo by: superubo

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average American produces 4.4 lbs of garbage a day or a total of 29 lbs per week and 1,600 lbs per year.  If those numbers seem hard to comprehend, just think about it like this.  American’s alone produce enough garbage to cover the state of Texas…. two and half times.  Or bury 990,000 football fields under six-foot high piles of waste (source).

Even more disappointing than the figures above is the notion that exists today that an object can simply be thrown away.  The discarded object gets transferred to a landfill where it sits idly until it decomposes.  The “dirty little secret” with litter is that the lifespan of this decomposition is unknown and ignored by many.

Decomposition Rates of Common Garbage (source):

Cotton Rag:  1-5 months

Paper Cup:  5 years

Foam Cup:  10-20 years

Plastic Cup:  50-80 years

Tin Can:  100 years

Aluminum Can:  100-500 years

Glass Bottle:  Indestructible

As America Recycles Day nears, let’s all reevaluate our recycling practices.  For additional information on recycling common waste materials please refer to our previous article, “8 Easy Items to Recycle”.