If plastic was made in 1907 how do they know it may take up to 1000 years to decompose?

Question

If plastic was made in 1907 how do they know it may take up to 1000 years to decompose?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

You don’t need to observe the full lifecycle of a material or molecule or atom to understand how it works. In this case, you can say that a plastic bag in the forest decomposes or breaks down X% over a one year period, so using that math and knowledge you know that it will take Y years to break down completely.