How long does it take for a potato chip bag to degrade? During a road clean-up event, participants found some potato chip bags produced 33 years ago, indicating that they had been here for approximately 1,716 weeks.
We have all seen it on the road: the sides of the road are piled with garbage such as drink cans, coffee cups, burger lunch boxes and cigarette boxes. We always hope that the local country will have cleaned them up the next time we pass by. But that’s often not the case. Next week, the trash may still be there; and the next week, it may still be untouched.
Some participants in an anti-litter campaign in the UK’s Forest of Dean have discovered that rubbish can linger for much longer than just a few weeks.
The most disturbing thing is that although these potato chips have been eaten long ago, the packaging bags they leave behind still look like they were just produced.
You might think that this garbage must have broken the age record of garbage, but this is not the case. Scientists point out that plastic bags and bottles can last hundreds, thousands, or even millions of years without degrading.
Not only man-made items are like this, but even banana peels can last for more than a month, and orange peels may take two years to completely decompose.
Not only man-made items are like this, but even banana peels can last for more than a month, and orange peels may take two years to completely decompose.
Two weeks
Apple core. Although its degradation time is relatively short, the core or other parts of the fruit can attract unwelcome creatures such as rats.
About a month
Paper towels, paper bags, newspapers, etc. How quickly these items degrade depends largely on how they degrade. For example, paper towels that are buried in the soil take much longer to decompose than paper towels that are exposed to the air.
Six weeks
Cereal packaging boxes, paper bags, banana peels, etc. In addition, if the weather is colder, it may take longer for banana peels to degrade.
The role of the peel is to protect the inner pulp, so the peel is rich in cellulose, which is also the main component of cellophane packaging.
Earlier this year, environmentalists warned that discarded fruit peels were causing serious pollution in Ben Nevis, Scotland, as the rubbish takes months to fully degrade. Although peels are a natural product, that doesn’t mean they aren’t trash.
