What product is taking up the most space in US landfills?
September 4th, 2007
The item most frequently encountered in MSW landfills is plain old paper—on average, it accounts for more than 40 percent of a landfill’s contents. This proportion has held steady for decades and in some landfills has actually risen. Newspapers alone can take up as much as 13 percent of the space in US landfills.
Organic materials, including paper, do not easily biodegrade once they are disposed of in a landfill. Paper is many times more resistant to deterioration when compacted in a landfill than when it is in open contact with the atmosphere. Research by William Rathje, who runs the Garbage Project , has shown that, when excavated from a landfill, newspapers from the 1960s can be intact and readable.
Source: www.epa.gov
Entry Filed under: Lifestyle, Miscellany
3 Comments Add your own
1. Alcari | September 6th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I find that rather odd, as papers in a box in the garage won’t last more then a dozen years…
Hmmm… I may be on to a solution for the garbage problem
2. AB | September 18th, 2007 at 11:47 am
That’s because your garage isn’t lined with plastic and completely sunlight/air-deprived thereby slowly mummify everything inside it. Ya see.
I like to share my garbage knowledge. But I’m stopping now.
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