Plastic bags decompose how long

These oil giants are rapidly building petrochemical plants across the United States to turn fracked gas into plastic.

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It has revolutionized the way we live for the better, but it also presents us with a big problem. Plastic has only been in circulation since , and experts estimate that some plastics can last hundreds of years before they finally break down. And it keeps piling up in the strangest of ways, like the Great Pacific garbage patch just floating in the middle of the ocean.

Plastics can take anywhere from 20 to years to decompose, depending on the material and structure. Additionally, how fast a plastic breaks down depends on sunlight exposure.

Like our skin, plastics absorb ultraviolet UV radiation from the sun, which breaks down the molecules. For example, single-use plastic grocery bags take about two decades to break down. In contrast, plastic water bottles made with polyethylene terephthalate PET , a common type of plastic, are estimated to take approximately years to fully break down. BioBag is the leader in this field, but other companies are making inroads into this promising new green-friendly market. A California effort to ban plastic bags failed again recently, but will likely eventually succeed.

Washington, Florida, New Jersey and North Carolina are watching closely and considering similar laws depending on what happens in the Golden State. Worldwatch reports that taxes on plastic bags in South Africa and Ireland have been effective at reducing their use by upwards of 90 percent; Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Philippines, Taiwan and the UK are also planning to ban or tax plastic bags to help stem the tide of plastic waste.

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