What biodegrades faster plastic or stirofoam?

Question

trying to be more eco friendly

Answer 1

NOTHING.  It takes over 500 years for both to break down in a landfill.

Best thing to do is buy responsibly and recycle responsibly.

Styro is the worst-few companies even recycle it!!!  So if you are thinking about buying styrofoam plates or cups--please think twice! And if you have a choice to buy from the deli counter verses meat on a styrofoam tray--choose that option, too.

Answer 2

Just about everything biodegrades faster than plastic and styrofoam. Look for products with as little packaging as possible. Preferably made from recycled paper. Sometimes you have no choice so the best thing you can do is to recycle as much of your trash as possible.

Answer 3

Styrofoam is a plastic.  Most petroleum based plastics never biodegrade.

Bioplastics are on the way.  Some of them are even compostable.  For some information from a company that is doing this, go to:

http://www.metabolix.com/

There are other companies working on bioplastics also.  Some very big corporations have an interest in this.

Answer 4

styrofoam is plastic.

Answer 5

both very slow

Answer 6

Nothing biodegrades fast when it is sealed in a landfill.  I recently took an environment class where my teacher showed us a picture of a hot dog that still looked brand new because it had been sealed in a landfill where light, moisture, bugs, animals, etc couldn't get to it to break it down.  He also told us how there have been newspapers that were pulled out of a landfill that looked like they were still hot off the press.

It's probably more eco friendly to use plastic and recycle it.