How long will these last? Common Landfill Items How long will these last?

Part 1 Answer questions 1-5 on your handout using the pictures on the next slide

Aluminum Can Banana Cotton Washcloths 6-pack ring Glass Bottle Rubber Sole of Boot Paper Bag

4a. Reduce To use less Create less trash How we can do this: Buy less stuff Buy items with little packaging Compost

4b. Reuse Using material more than once How we can do this: Reusable shopping bags Reusable bottles for drinks Make your own juices in pitchers Refillable ink cartridges for printers Containers instead of baggies for lunches and leftovers

4c. Recycle To make into something new The process of converting waste into a useable product How we can do this: Recycle items that can be recycled Plastic bottles Glass items Cardboard products

Fill in the table on the back, using the “best guess” column Part 2 Fill in the table on the back, using the “best guess” column

rubber sole (of the boot) tin can (soup or vegetable can) Decomposition Times Item Decomposition Times aluminum can 200-500 years cigarette butt 2-5 years banana 3-4 weeks cotton rag 5 months glass bottle Unknown? Forever? leather boot 40-50 years paper bag 1 month plastic 6-pack rings 450 years plastic jug 1 million years rubber sole (of the boot) 50-80 years Styrofoam cup ? tin can (soup or vegetable can) 80-100 years wool sock 1 year

Copy Information on front Part 3 Copy Information on front

Why items don’t decompose? The Dry Tomb Effect Items in a landfill are constantly buried They are protected from the elements- wind, water, heat- this preserves them Like Egyptians mummies Bacteria cannot survive in these conditions so they cannot decompose the items

Newspapers from the 1970s, dug up in landfills in 2005 Even fruit takes a long time to break down in a landfill