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

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

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

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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. rubber sole (of the boot) tin can (soup or vegetable can)
Decomposition Times
Item
Decomposition Times
aluminum can
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)
years
wool sock
1 year

9. Copy Information on front
Part 3
Copy Information on front

10. 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

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