How Long Does it Take Plastics to Break Down? [Infographic]

When you throw something away, there is no “away”. That piece of garbage has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is generally a landfill or even worse, right into the ocean. Unfortunately many people do not think about the next step once their piece of trash hits the bottom of the can. But what really happens to that piece of trash, and how much longer will it affect our environment?

Most plastic pollution will outlive us, potentially up to ten times over. Did you know that it can take a single bottle of soda up to one thousand years just to break down!? And breaking down doesn’t mean that it has been eradicated from the ocean, just that it is now in microscopic pieces contributing to what scientists refer to as a “plastic soup”.

This infographic from AlansFactoryOutlet takes a hard look at the length of time it takes different kinds of plastic to break down, and how long they could potentially impact our waters for.


Infographic by: www.alansfactoryoutlet.com