![]() However, there are new types of plastic on the market: bioplastics, or biodegradable plastics. The carbon bonds in plastic aren’t the same as those found in nature, making it more difficult and energy-intensive to break them down. There’s a lot of physics behind it, but the main difference is between the chemical bonds of plastic and the molecular bonds of organic things found in nature. Plastic is not found in nature, even though it is made from petroleum, which is extracted from naturally occurring crude oil. It’s simple: plastic isn’t a natural material. Why Does It Take That Long to Degrade Plastic? In addition, non-recycled plastic that does not make it to a landfill lastly goes into our water bodies. Landfills are truly unpleasant, and they are also extremely harmful to the ecosystem, releasing poisons and greenhouse gases into the ground and air. To make place for more garbage, landfills are compacted and covered with dirt every day, so the sun barely has time to reach the waste before another layer is added. When all of this plastic winds up in landfills, landfills are designed to make biodegradation difficult. Plastic water bottles composed of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a common form of plastic, on the other hand, are expected to take 450 years to degrade. Single-use plastic like straws, for example, takes roughly 200 years to degrade. ![]() This is referred to as photodegradation, and that is why landfills’ depiction commonly includes plastic waste to the light in order to hasten the disintegration procedure. Plastics, like human skin, absorb the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) radiation, causing the molecules to break down. Furthermore, the rate at which a plastic degrades is determined by its exposure to sunshine. How Long Does It Take Plastic to Decompose?ĭepending on the composition and structure, plastics might take anywhere from 20 to 500 years to degrade.
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