This entry was posted
on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 11:49 am and is filed under Petroleum.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
3 Responses to “How long does it take for petroleum based plastics to biodegrade?”
I was just reading about corn based plastic (http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2006/august/pla.php) and it seems like the stuff can just bio degrade as fertilizer, which would imply that it would in a very short period. Petroleum based plastics I am told take up to 1,000 years to bio-degrade
From my own personal experiences, number 1 plastic (pop bottles) and number 2 (milk cartons), exposed to sunlight and on the surface, take about two years to decompose.
February 19th, 2010 at 11:49 am
They never do. Corn-based plastics take just 45 days to biodegrade in a landfill. Normal plastic can take thousands of years to decompose.
here is an article on corn based plastics…
http://www.truthabouttrade.org/article.asp?id=2708
and another..
http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2006/august/pla.php
February 19th, 2010 at 11:49 am
I was just reading about corn based plastic (http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2006/august/pla.php) and it seems like the stuff can just bio degrade as fertilizer, which would imply that it would in a very short period. Petroleum based plastics I am told take up to 1,000 years to bio-degrade
February 19th, 2010 at 11:49 am
From my own personal experiences, number 1 plastic (pop bottles) and number 2 (milk cartons), exposed to sunlight and on the surface, take about two years to decompose.