That decomposes in the ground for 250 years. How much different types of garbage decompose (19 photos)

Answer # 1 ... The stele does not rot, rotting is a process of destruction caused either by the action of an oxidizing agent or by the action of microorganisms, but since the absolute is not edible, microorganisms do not eat it. The basis of glass is silicon oxide, and oxide, as you know, cannot burn. In addition, this oxide is quite stable and does not decompose in anything in nature, that is, it can only crumble to the smallest particles of sand and it will take for a bottle lying in the ground for millions of years. if the bottle is exposed external conditions then the number of millions is dwindling.

Answer # 2 ... Depending on the main glass-forming substance used, glasses are oxide, fluoride, sulfide, etc.

Glass is a mixture of oxides SiO2, Na2O and CaO. And what will it decompose into? For metals and oxygen? The main content is SiO2,
The enthalpy of formation is as much as -910, 9 kJ / mol. That is, it will never decompose itself, it is not energetically beneficial for it to decompose. In addition, this is a huge value, it decomposes by ordinary influences, in order to decompose, it is necessary to take this energy from somewhere and pump it into the glass.
Energy is almost 10 electron volts per molecule. In nature, is there such energy in cosmic rays?
but how many of those rays.

Few definitions

Glass- substance and material, one of the most ancient and, due to the variety of its properties, - universal in human practice. Physico-chemical - not organic matter, solid, structurally - amorphous, isotropic; all types of glass are converted into state of aggregation- from the extreme viscosity of liquid to the so-called glassy - in the process of cooling at a rate sufficient to prevent crystallization of melts obtained by melting the raw material. The melting temperature of glasses, from 300 to 2500 ° C, is determined by the components of these glass-forming melts. The title of this material in different languages has a different etymology. The term "glass structure" implies the description of two closely related, but often considered independently aspects - geometry mutual disposition the atoms and ions that make up the glass and the nature of the chemical bonds between the particles that form it. Glass is an inorganic isotropic substance, a material known and used since ancient times. The main disadvantage of conventional glass is fragility.

We watch how products rot at an accelerated rate

When you accidentally drop a bottle of ketchup on the floor, you mentally thank the manufacturer for the plastic wrap. Most containers, cups and bottles are manufactured using polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. It is a material that is practically indestructible.

But when the time comes to throw the same bottle in a landfill, you will probably have different thoughts. Now the feeling of gratitude to the producers is being replaced by shame for their behavior. We buy regularly plastic packaging and then discard them. However, petroleum-based materials (such as PET) do not biodegrade like organic matter.

What is biodegradation?

Wood, grasses, and food waste completely decompose in the soil relatively quickly. Biodegradation is the name of a process that destroys complex substances as a result of the activity of living organisms (for example, earthworms or bacteria). In practice, microorganisms transform organic materials (paper, cardboard, weeds, residues of vegetables and fruits) into other useful compounds suitable for increasing soil fertility.

Ecology in danger

However, neither bacteria nor worms want to deal with plastic. You can experiment in a compost pit garden plot... Load organic materials for these little gluttons on one side, and fill the other with plastic bags and bottles. Remember to water well and then cover with a layer of soil. When checking the condition of the compost pit during the summer, on one side you will find crumbly humus. On the other hand, your "gifts" will remain intact. Plastic decomposition will occur in 200 years at best.

Daniel Byrd's discovery

Of course, this is not the end of the story. Per last years in academia, several outstanding discoveries... For example, Daniel Bird, a student at the University of Waterloo, has shown that certain types of bacteria can destroy plastic. His research won the top prize at the Canada-wide Science Fair, which earned the young scientist $ 10,000 in cash and $ 20,000 in honors.

Photoaging process

And while other researchers replicate Byrd's experiment and await the results, let's look for others. possible methods decomposition of plastic. The only one in a real way to decompose this material can be thought of as a process of photoaging, which requires a lot of sunlight rather than bacteria. When UV rays penetrate the plastic, they break the bonds that hold this long polymer chain together. It will take a long time, but someday big piece plastic will disintegrate into many small elements.

Finding a solution to the problem

Garbage dumps are filled with polyethylene terephthalate products, but most of them are reliably hidden from the sun's rays. There is an alternative scenario for attempts to decompose plastic, which is unlikely to please environmentalists. The world's oceans absorb tons of waste, and water helps ultraviolet rays penetrate deep into the depths. Researchers from Nihon University (Japan) in 2007 concluded that plastic immersed in warm ocean water begins to lose its structure in a year.

The oceans are like a garbage dump

You will not notice anything reprehensible in this until you remember marine life... Hidden within these microscopic pieces of decaying plastic toxic substances... When these toxins enter the intestines of animals, they can be fatal marine fauna... Well, the tides throw decaying pieces of plastic on the seaside beaches. Vacationers think that they are going to the sea for health improvement, but they get a blow to their health.

How can this problem be solved?

One of the ways to prevent a biological catastrophe is to use biodegradable plastic. Food packaging is currently being developed using corn and polylactic acid, which breaks down into carbon dioxide and water over a period of 50 to 90 days.

Many of us throw garbage anywhere, in any place, in nature and wherever we want! Have you ever wondered how long it will take for it to decompose? I don't think so. So we read this publication in order to know how much this garbage that we throw on the streets will last for years. The publication is informative, I hope many will draw the right conclusions!

Animal droppings are a disaster big cities... The decomposition period is short, only 10-15 days, but it gives a lot of trouble.


Food waste... It takes about a month to decompose.


Newsprint. Decomposition period from 1 month to 1 season


Leaves, seeds, twigs. Even they can cause serious pollution in urban environments. Decomposition period 3 - 4 months


Cardboard boxes decompose within 3 months


Paper. The most common office paper takes 2 years to decompose


Boards from the construction site. If they are not properly cared for, the decomposition period reaches 10 years.


Decomposition period 11 - 13 years


Iron cans. term 10 years


Old shoes - 10 years


Fragments of brick and concrete 100 years old


Car accumulators for about 100 years


Foil over 100 years


Electric batteries 110 years


Rubber tires 120-140 years old


Plastic bottles. about 180-200 years


Aluminum cans are almost the most dangerous waste. Decomposition time 500 years


Finally, glass. Nobody knows how much of it is already packed in our resting places. The glass will take more than 1000 years to decompose, and at least another 12-15 generations will enjoy our fragments.

Human civilization produces a huge amount of garbage, which is already. Many of us, finishing our next bottle of soft drink, do not think about what awaits it in the future. How long will it lie in a landfill under a layer of earth and clay? I can assure you that many centuries will pass before it is destroyed. Landfill conditions are ideal for preserving our waste. Under a thick layer of earth, neither sunlight, no oxygen. Perhaps in many thousands of years our descendants-archaeologists (if they survive) will consider these "traces of life" of their ancestors with great interest. Let's find out how long the "creations of human hands" will lie in the earth.

Glass bottle - one million years old
That is how long an ordinary glass bottle will lie. Glass is made from quartz sand and therefore very resistant to aggressive environments. So our descendants will have a chance to find even a whole bottle of beer, not drunk by some connoisseur of this drink.

Plastic bag - from 500 to 1000 years
About 1000 years will lie in the ground "not edible" for microorganisms-destructors plastic bag... Fortunately, many countries, which means that our descendants have a chance to live not on a garbage heap.

Aluminum - 80 to 200 years old
According to the calculations of scientists in 2004 alone, about 55 billion aluminum canisters were buried in landfills in the world, which is 760% more than in 1972.

Cigarette butts - 1 to 5 years
Despite the apparent "flimsy" cigarette butts in natural environment they also do not collapse as quickly as we would like. The culprit is the toxic substances remaining after smoking and the cellulose acetate that makes up the filter. The huge number of smokers makes cigarette butts especially dangerous for environment.

Newspaper - 2-4 weeks, some editions are longer 😉
There are cases when 15-year-old newspaper samples were found in landfills under a heap of earth. Under a thick layer of earth, in the absence of oxygen, they are, in fact, conserved. The big plus of newspapers is that they can be recycled.

Apple core - 1-2 months, in some cases longer
The stub in your trash can may still exist for two months. Food waste, finding itself in a landfill under a thick layer of earth and waste, also decomposes rather slowly. In the slowest scenario, they only decompose by 50% every 20 years.

The growing multi-kilometer landfills make one think. If the consumer boom continues as intensively further, then soon we ourselves will live on garbage heaps. The ways out of the situation are obvious. It is necessary to try to produce as much material goods as necessary (overproduction - damages the environment), to establish the production of easily degrading and self-destructive packaging of products, as well as to develop industry recycling waste... Preliminary estimate household waste at our landfills shows that already with the help of existing technologies 40% of paper, 17% of solid household waste, 8% plastic and 7% food waste.

Depending on the main used glass-forming substance, glasses are divided into oxide: silicate, quartz, germanant, phosphate, borate; fluoride, sulfide and others. And this is not organic material. And in fact, it does not decompose, it just disintegrates.

For example, the discarded Glass bottle after a year it does not change its shape, after five years it turns into large fragments. After 10 years, the fragments, which have become small for all the time, become cloudy and become fragile under the influence of light. But if glass is in our earth, then these processes are slightly slowed down.

As we can see in this figure - in nature, from all the garbage for the decomposition of glass, you need the largest number time.

Another squeak is a mirror of the planet looking at the list under a microscope, you can guess; understand what processes took place on it different times... PS .: interesting: how to determine the age of the glass?

Glass can lie under a layer of earth for several hundred years and nothing will happen to the glass. It will remain intact, only as a splinter will be lost. it can lie for about a thousand years without changing much. Perhaps that is why forest fires occur, that the splinter gave a spark from the scorching sun.

Glass is an alloy of several oxides of metals and non-metals. Glass is not organic. Its composition is similar to that of sand or stone. Therefore, under terrestrial conditions, glass does not decompose at all. Crumbles, but does not decompose.

Only that which is of organic origin can decompose over time. Being a composition inorganic substances, glass can not decompose either under the influence of water or the sun, or from time to time. Glass bottles can hang for centuries in the waves of the sea or lie deep underground, and no decomposition occurs with them. I once had an interesting find on the Black Sea beach - something like a green transparent stone, smooth, beautiful and unlike anything else. Then all of us who saw this find came to the conclusion that it was water, wind and rubbing against stones. glass bottle Green colour! I would very much like to know how long it took nature for this? I am very sorry that I did not think to take a photo (.



Glass practically cannot decompose. The fact is that glass is made, roughly speaking, from sand which itself also does not decompose due to its strong structure. The only thing that can decompose glass in the ground is strong chemical influences, which do not occur in normal soil. Glass can rather, being under the influence of, for example, water, over time `` grind off '', but this is also a very long process, since glass is usually very smooth. The denser the structure of the material, the less it chemically interacts with external environment- the more difficult it is to decompose v normal conditions... That is why all kinds of flasks, test tubes and so on for chemical experiments and storage of chemicals and drugs are made of glass. Just imagine how long various ancient shards and tools made of materials less durable than glass lie in the ground - how many thousands, but rather millions of years it may take for the glass to decompose.

If I remember correctly, glass does not belong to organic substances and therefore does not decompose under the influence of normal environmental influences. It is a very stable compound of several metal and non-metal oxides. In any case, there are no substantiated data on the time of glass decomposition.

Glass does not decompose as it consists of inorganic substances. And only organic ones decompose. Glass is made from sand and impurities of metals, and this is a natural material. Glass in general, by its nature in solid form, is resistant to any atmospheric factors.

Glass does not decompose or rot, as for this it must be edible for microorganisms. But the composition of the glass is not organic. The main component is silicon oxide, which is highly resistant to external factors.

The only thing that can happen to glass is crumbling. That is, glass can only crumble into tiny particles. And this will take at least 1000 years, and maybe more.

Glass is not organic and therefore cannot decompose. Decomposition is the effect of microorganisms on organic matter. But then the glass can disintegrate into microparticles. And this takes thousands of years.

Glass is made from sand. For glass to become sand again, more than 1000 years have to pass. However, this is provided that the glass will lie peacefully in the ground. If the glass is thrown into the sea, then it will rub against the pebbles intensively and under the influence of salts it will decompose faster.