I was taking garbage to the garbage bins in Big Sandy. This time, instead of just throwing the garbage bag, I looked at the garbage and thought about how I never think often enough about this issue of waste. I just dump. That is when I remembered reading about the theme for Earth Day 2024: Planet vs. Plastics. We just take our garbage to the bins.
It’s staggering to think about the sheer volume of waste we generate. The largest portion of our garbage is food, with a mind-boggling 38-40% of the food we purchase ends up in the trash. Equally alarming is the fact that paper, a highly recyclable material, takes a mere two to six weeks to decompose.
This is probably something we’ve all read about, but it’s worth repeating.
Plastic waste is one of many types of waste that take too long to decompose. Normally, plastic items take up to 1000 years to decompose in landfills. However, the plastic bags we use daily take 10-20 years to decompose, while plastic bottles take 450 years.
Other internet sites have a few different amounts of time, but still, it takes a lot of time. Many common household items aren’t biodegradable: aluminum cans (8 to 200 years), tin cans (50-100 years), Ziplock/grocery bags (1,000 years), straws (400 years), wrap (1,000 years), bottles (10 to 1,000 years), coated milk cartons (5 years), and six-pack plastic rings (up to 450 years).
Other items like ink cartridges take up to (500 to 1,000 years), light bulbs (not biodegradable), batteries (100 years), aluminum foil (400 years), styrofoam (not biodegradable), glass bottles (not biodegradable), plastics (1000 years), fishing Line (500 years), and tires up to 2,000 years.
I couldn’t reach anyone at the Havre Landfill to interview, which I hope to do because I’m curious about how much garbage we have in the area. The biggest landfill in the world is in Las Vegas. “The Apex Regional landfill site in Las Vegas is the largest landfill site in the world by area, and every day, more than 10,000 tons of waste is dumped there.”
