photo: kinerific/Creative Commons
DCL
It being America Recycles Day—which a number of us at Planet Green and TreeHugger really ought to be transformed into Zero Waste Day, recycling being the least important part of the classic three, no, ten Rs—I thought I add some really interesting stats to the pile.
The folks over at MindBodyGreen have a great infographic on how much do we really recycle and what we could do with all of it if we recycled more. It's all good, but the part which really stood out to me is the section on how long it takes for various substances to biodegrade should you just dump it in a landfill.
Look at the image below for a bit and then proceed:
The thing I want you to consider is what different material choices mean for waste. As much as we'd like it to be Zero Waste Day, a true zero waste economy is a long ways off and even then zero waste would probably end up being more like 90% waste-free even under the best of circumstances.
Which is why choosing biodegradable materials is so important.
Choosing a reusable bag may be the best option, but when you've forgotten one and for some reason don't end up recycling the disposable bag, the paper one decomposes in a few weeks (in the right conditions...) while it's going to take another thousand years for the plastic bag to break down into smaller and smaller pieces, which probably will remain even longer at miniscule size.
Natural fiber clothing, while best recycled or repurposed, does break down. The chart shows a wool sock biodegrading in a landfill in a year, synthetic disposable diapers take hundreds of years.
Drinking vessels? The aluminum can takes at least 50-something years to break down and can't be reused. A glass bottle is forever but very much reusable and refillable—even if beverage manufacturers in the US don't like to, it's the norm in other nations. A styrofoam cup or packaging, thankfully becoming more and more rare, takes billions of years to break down completely. As in the age of the universe.
Here's the complete infographic: How Much Do We Really Recycle? (Infographic)
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