When we talk about keeping our environment clean, very rarely do actually talk about decomposition and how much time the items that we use, take to decompose and wipe off from this planet. Maybe never too. Because somehow we have left that kind of knowledge in our textbooks and no longer care about it. But the truth is that this is the most crucial time to actually think about things like these.
If you don’t know yet, our planet is dying. Climate change is more apparent than ever and a couple of hundreds of years from now, no life will be able to survive on this planet. But even then, a plastic bag or a glass bottle or a straw could be spotted because that’s how they take to actually decompose and vanish.
The worst part, most of the time we don’t even know much harm our simple actions do to our planet, our earth.
We go out for a picnic and more often than not leave the waste there only and come back home with empty bags and fewer responsibilities over our heads. Responsibility to correctly and aptly dispose of the waste.
In case you’re looking for that motivation to alert you about the repercussions of your simple habits, then here they are.
1. Tetra packing might be saved but it takes a lot of time to decompose.
2. All those cigarette butts that you mindlessly throw away anywhere are pilling on and ultimately taking a lot of space.
3. Stop using these foamed cups, they’re killing your planet.
4. No soft drink is worth 100 years.
5. This small and at times, absolutely useless item takes more than 200 years and is harming our oceans and the animals living in it, a lot.
6. These toothbrushes that you change after every 4 months or so, take 400 years.
7. Try to substitute your plastic bottle for something more sustainable.
8. Sanitary Napkins also take up a lot of time, which is why more and more women should look out for more sustainable options.
9. Yes, that small plastic bag takes somewhere around 1000 years to decompose.
10. 1 million years. One freaking million years.
Now that you know about the real-time our day-to-day items take to decompose, maybe you might start looking out for more sustainable and good for our environment options.
Jyotsna Amla