How long will my junk sit in a landfill?

July 18, 2009 in Reduce, Reuse, & Recycle by Jennifer | 1 comment

I hope you are recycling. Many items we use often will never biodegrade OR will take tons of years to do so. In fact, many items if tossed will take longer than your lifespan to decompose. That won’t do. Worldwise used to have this cool chart at their website about how long things take to recycle. The chart is gone, but I had the facts saved so here you go…

If you fail to recycle an item then how long will said item sit in the landfill?

Cotton rags
1-5 months

Paper
2-5 months

Rope
3-14 months

Orange peels
6 months

Wool socks
1 to 5 years

Cigarette butts
1 to 12 years

Plastic coated paper milk cartons
5 years

Leather shoes
25 to 40 years

Nylon fabric
30 to 40 years

Tin cans
50 to 100 years

Aluminum cans
80 to 100 years

Plastic 6-pack holder rings
450 years

Glass bottles
1 million years

Plastic bottles
Forever

In other words, WAY too long. If you don’t have your recycling plan organized, read What You Can’t Recycle and learn about how to do a trash audit. Then get your home recycling center organized with some Attractive Recycling Bins for Your Home.

Are you recycling as much as you can? What could you be doing better?

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  1. Robert Nelk’s avatar

    Robert Nelk on July 21, 2009 at 11:19 am

    Recycling your self is one thing.
    It helps even more when your community promotes recycling and has the facilities. I found there are many areas around the country do not provide for recycling. This often happens in apartment complexes where the landlords are responsible for disposal services.
    Tenants can help by working with the landlord to provide recycling services.
    People can also call their local waste management company and find out how a recycling program can be set up.
    Companies are not pro-active that way. It is mostly up to residents to make the first move.

    Robert