Dumping of litter in the sea can cause huge problems. Litter items such as 6-pack ring packaging can get caught in marine animals and may result in death. Different items take different lengths of time to degrade in water:
- Cardboard – Takes 2 weeks to degrade.
- Newspaper – Takes 6 weeks to degrade.
- Photodegradable packaging – Takes 6 weeks to degrade.
- Foam – Takes 50 years to degrade.
- Styrofoam – Takes 80 years to degrade.
- Aluminium – Takes 200 years to degrade.
- Plastic packaging – Takes 400 years to degrade.
- Glass – It takes so long to degrade that we don’t know the exact time.
