Question from A Gold
A lady at the Earth Day fair mentioned 25 year old hotdogs found in a landfill when I said biodegradable is better than recyclable. I searched on the internet to satisfy my curiosity. No, not to satisfy by macabre tastes!
“Typically in landfills, there’s not much dirt, very little oxygen, and few if any microorganisms,” says green consumer advocate and author Debra Lynn Dadd. She cites a landfill study conducted by University of Arizona researchers that uncovered still-recognizable 25-year-old hot dogs, corncobs and grapes in landfills, as well as 50-year-old newspapers that were still readable.” About.com: Do Biodegradable Items Really Break Down in Landfills?
Debra’s Answer
The study was called The Garbage Project. The best description I could find today is at Treehugger: The Garbage Project. Originally, when I cited it in a book I wrote in the mid-1990’s, I think I read about it in National Geographic magazine.
