People around the world are producing trash at an alarming rate. As the most populated country in the world, China is no exception. Many of the things that end up in landfills and the oceans, including metals, plastics and Styrofoam, take countless years to biodegrade. For example, the aluminum can that housed the tomato sauce you had for dinner last night takes about 200 years to biodegrade. Biodegradation is the process by which a material disintegrates by means of bacteria, fungi, or other biological means. In other words, tiny microscopic living organisms eat away at the material slowly until it finally disappears.
Perhaps you think that because trash is disposed of in landfills and the ocean, it doesn’t affect you. After all, out of sight, out of mind. In reality though, the trash that ends up in the ocean poisons the water and all living creatures in it – the same fish and shrimp that we have for dinner. What ends up in landfills poisons the land, affecting things like crops and other plants that humans and animals consume. In addition, improper disposal of waste can cause pollution, global warming, and even destroy natural habitats. Once we toss out that empty aluminum tomato sauce can, we forget about it, but in the end, it will find its way back to us.
One way to limit what ends up in landfills and oceans is to recycle, a concept that many people should be familiar with.
