How Long Will it Take to Decompose?

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February 22, 2012 is the date we started our "How Long Will it Take to Decompose?" experiment. This experiment is listed in our 2011-2012 activities.

The purpose of the experiment was to see how long it would take 6 different items to decompose. This was after our discussion about what we recycle and what we throw in the trash that eventually fills up our landfills.

All but one item was made of paper. There was a sheet of construction paper, a sheet of notebook paper, a sheet of newspaper and a sheet of cardboard that were all the same size. There was a compostable take home container from a restaurant and a styrofoam tray from our lunchroom. Students hypothesized how long it would take each item to decompose.

February 22, 2012

Throughout the remainder of that semester, we monitored the items. We checked them every

2-3 weeks to see how much they had decomposed.

The last 2 weeks in May, before summer break, students made one last observation. 

Construction paper and notebook paper had broken down quite a bit, but the newspaper showed little change.

 The compostable container and styrofoam tray showed very little change.

A full year has passed. On February 22, 2013 we did one last check to find out what was left.

All of the construction paper, notebook paper and cardboard were totally gone. There was a small piece of newspaper under a brick that was still left. The compostable food container was partially decomposed. It is made of thicker, stronger paper so it takes longer to break down. The styrofoam tray was gone, but not because of decomposition. The wind had ripped it away. The part under the brick was still there. Students could see that paper will decompose and not hurt our environment. The styrofoam that we throw away and fill our landfills with will be there for a long time. They could see how that hurts our environment.