DUK...Trash?

I know it's a strange title but the original title I was thinking of was too long to sound attractive! This DUK post is really about how long it takes for your trash to decompose.


I went to the beach last Friday as part of my birthday celebration. The beach I went to has always been nice but it started to re-invent itself. It also started to post up signs to educate their customers about how to keep the beach clean and healthy as well. The one that I came upon really inspired me to write this DUK post.

So the scenario is really this: You walk along the beach and you find plastic bottles and trash lining the waves that is lapping at your feet. You take a path to get to wherever you might've put your towel down to get a tan and see the trash a person might've left. You don't really think much of it and you keep on walking.

Here's the truth about the trash you leave on the beach [as told by the sign posted]:

Glass bottles takes 1 million years to decompose. 

An aluminum can can take 80-200 years, plastic bottles 450 years, and plastic bags 10-20 years. You know those cigarette butts you think that you can just bury away in the sand and it won't harm anything or anyone? Well a single cigarette butt takes 4-5 years to decompose. Imagine all of that on a large scale! How many years it might take for a single summer's day worth of trash left behind to decompose so the beach might return to its original condition prior to that day!

We also shouldn't forget other life that is disrupted by the trash carelessly thrown. In the ocean, fish might eat the small plastic parts or get caught in the plastic rings. These man-made creations can be toxic to the life forms!

Here are a few tips for your next trip to the beach to help:

-Bring your own trash bag or plastic bag. I know that trash disposals are so far and in between on the beach or it's a pain to go all the way to the sidewalk in order to find a trash barrel. By bringing your own, you can just dump out that bag in the trash when you leave the beach.

-Use re-usable containers. Every bottle of water you might bring and throw away takes years to decompose in a land fill! Even the plastic you might use to wrap your food in harms the environment.

-Do a good deed. Help volunteer to pick up the trash at the beach or do it out of your own initiative. The last time I went, I picked up a plastic wrapper for crackers from the ocean out to throw out.
Of course these tips can transcend the beach and into your daily life. You can use these tips at the park or even a walk around the city!