Showing posts with label aluminum cans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aluminum cans. Show all posts

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Lasting Trash


Different littered materials will remain in the natural environment for a varying length of time depending on how quickly they degrade, either biologically, chemically, or because of sunlight.   This kind of information can be easily found by doing a web search.  The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality published this information on it's web page. 

Material                                           Time to Degrade
Piece of Paper                                    2 to 4 weeks
Orange and Banana peels                    2 to 5 weeks
Cotton Rags                                       1 to 5 months
Disposable diapers                             10 to 20 years
Plastic bags                                        10 to 20 years
Aluminum cans                                   80 to 100 years
Glass                                                  indefinitely