North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

I suspect that these projected 'decomposition times' relate to these 
objects buried in the anaerobic conditions of a landfill.  I can assure you 
that a styrofoam cup or plastic milk jug, lying on top of the ground, will 
degrade, due to the combined effects of UV light and bacterial(many 
Pseudomonas spp. have been shown to be able to use plastics as a carbon 
source) and fungal metabolism, oftentimes in less than three years.
Likewise, the steel(tinned) can, if buried just at the soil surface, will 
certainly be gone in far less than 90 years - there have been thousands of 
direct-seeded nut trees planted with a steel can with an 'X' cut in the 
bottom & peeled back somewhat to allow emergence of the seedling, shoved 
down over them to provide some protection against pilfering by 
mice/squirrels/raccoons, and in the vast majority of cases, the can rusts 
completely away before the seedling attains sufficient caliper to require 
removal, or even cutting of the rim of the can to prevent girdling.
That still doesn't give folks a good reason for throwing them out hither 
and yon.

LLP


At 11:08 AM 12/12/2004 -0600, you wrote:
> 'Ello, All!
>         I try not to be fanatical on this topic, just do what I can, but you
> hear so many different decomposition rates for objects I thought this was
> nice in having it all in one list.  It came from a brochure from a paper
> newsletter from the Missouri Forestkeepers Network, a State Department of
> Conservation organization set up to monitor the state of the state's
> forests.
>
>                 Litter's Legacy
>
>         Objects         Decomposition Time
>
> Styrofoam container     >1 million years
>
> Plastic Jug                     1 million years
>
> Disposable diaper               550 years
>
> Aluminum can            200-500 years
>
> Tinned can                      90 years
>
> Leather shoe                    45 years