Fruits, batteries, bottles … which object takes longer to disappear outdoors?
How long does it take a tomato to survive? How long does it take a bottle of plastic to fade ? Abandoned waste in nature threaten the survival of more than 15,000 animal species and poison the food chain that humans are also part of. And some of these are harmful materials fauna and flora eternities that remain in the environment: without going any further, a glass bottle can take four millennia to degrade.
The time outdoors listings objects take to evaporate is approximate. It will depend on variations in the composition or manufacture of each other, and also the environmental conditions to which they are exposed. However, the approach outlined below is correct, according to the expert Daniel Ramon, former professor of the CSIC and director of the biotechnology company Biopolis.
Paper
The paper, a material made of cellulose extracted from trees, degrades in about a year in humid places. If it goes to a dry decomposition it will last much longer. The environmental cost of production is high: according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), between 2000 and 2010 , the planet would have lost 13 million hectares of forests a year.
Cigarettes
The snuff has some 4,000 known chemicals. Including nicotine, tar, ammonia and polonium 210, all carcinogenic and influential in the death of more than six million people a year, according to estimates the World Health Organization (WHO). The cigarette filter is cellulose acetate, the faster evaporation element of the cigarette . The combination of components makes your cigarettes degradation time ranging between one and ten years.
Chewing gums
Gums are composed by 80% plastic . The remaining mixture of gums natural resins, synthetic, sugar , flavorings and artificial colors. Degradation, which lasts on average five years, requires the action of oxygen. Later it will crack and fade away without leaving barely environmental trail.
Water bottle
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the material from which most of the world water bottles are manufactured, is unaffordable for most of the spoilage microorganisms in nature. A package ofplastic of these features can take between 100 and 1,000 years to begin to lose their tone and start to fade outdoors. One thing: 2025 will have been poured into the planet some 155 million tons of plastic waste in the sea.
Sneakers
Sports shoes, usually made of pieces of leather, rubber, canvas and other synthetic elements, consists of different degradation times by the same multiple composition. textile parts (leather, cloth) and finally the chemical (foams, synthetic soles) will fade first. 200 years is the estimated time for it to degrade.
fruit
The decomposition process of a fruit can last between two and three months. Organic wastes are wastes generated in Spain for example is more: approximately represent 40% of their trash bag.