Does styrofoam really take 1000 years to break down?

Question

Does styrofoam really take 1000 years to break down?

Answer 1

.Yes but the good thing it can be recycled and since it petrol em based it can be broken down my petroleum.

Answer 2

I doubt it would take that long, but I would believe it does take a very long time as in 100+ yrs.   While I love this great earth God gave us and all the creatures and nature, I think some of all this environmental stats is hype.  But everybit we can do to help the world/others is still important to do.

Answer 3

Obviously they are estimating, but it  really is that bad - it is an environmental disaster.

Answer 4

Who can honestly say?  sure the experts will say so, but let me tell you this,  They said the same thing about plastic milk jugs,  I know for a fact that these jugs after about 10 years, in the weather, if they are just touched, they literaly crumble.

So I think some people just like the drama

Answer 5

yes, it takes longer than 1,000 years for oil-based styrofoam or any plastic made from petroleum to break down, but still, they do not "break down," if you mean become one with the planet, with the earth or water.  

"break down" really means that a substance "biodegrades," which means, truly, that somewhere there is a natural organism that will eat the substance.  they are usually bacteria and of course, they eat rotten waste food and cellulose-based products such as paper, made from trees.  

no animal on the earth eats petroleum-based plastics of any type.  that is why they are not biodegradable or break-downable.  

there is some good news that certain types of plastic can be made from corn, so far.  corn does biodegrade, but i'm not sure how its plastic form would biodegrade.  

the sad story is that landfills are so packed with garbage (and toxins), layer after layer covered up and packed down to make room for more garbage that corn cobs that are 10 years old, for example, are not yet even close to becoming soil again.  the gas emitted from landfills is methane--far, far more dangerous than is CO2, which is emitted most of all from water, especially standing water like rice pattys and marshes.  that's why you see little fires in various places on hills of landfills:  they are burning off methane.  

it would be good for the corporate giants to all have to put some of their mega-profits together into a fund in order to make cheap and large rockets, in order to shoot the toxic waste, medical and chemical biohazards, and garbage out towards the sun, where it would automatically get vaporized.