Plastic is one of humanity’s most useful inventions… and one of its most persistent problems. Plastic has become so ingrained in modern life that it’s easy to forget how long it lingers once tossed away. The truth is that plastic’s decomposition rate is so slow that most plastic sticks around far longer than we do.
Unlike natural materials like wood or paper, plastic is synthetic. Its tightly bonded carbon structure doesn’t break down easily, making it incredibly durable but also problematic. That durability is why only about nine percent of plastic gets recycled globally despite decades of recycling efforts. The rest ends up in landfills, incinerators, or more often than not, in our oceans and landscapes.
As such, having a good idea of the plastic decomposition rate can help us determine better ways to deal with this problem. While scientists have discovered bacteria that can eat plastic, a lot of it is still slowly breaking down. The bad news is that most of it will take centuries to decompose.
Here’s a look at how long some everyday plastic items take to decompose based on a graph from Visual Capitalist.
- Plastic bags – 20 years
- Plastic-lined coffee cups – 30 years
- Plastic straws – 200 years
- Soda can rings – 400 years
- Plastic bottles – 450 years
- Toothbrushes and disposable diapers – 500 years
- Styrofoam – 500 years
- Fishing line – 600 years
But that’s just the beginning. Even after plastic decomposes, these materials don’t ever really go away. Instead, they break down into microplastics that persist in the environment and even enter our food chain. Researchers have even found microplastics in the human brain.
While recycling is essential to reducing plastic waste, it’s not a silver bullet. Most plastics can only be recycled once or twice before degrading into a quality too low for reuse. After that, they end up right back in the waste stream, contributing to the cycle of pollution once again.
A straw might be used for 15 minutes, but it can remain in the environment for 200 years. The choices we make today will outlive us. Hopefully, research into self-eating plastic and other alternatives will continue to make advancements, and we’ll have something better to turn to soon.
