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Chemical Reactions and Equations
Question
Wired Faculty App

How much time does it take for certain commonly used products to biodegrade, when they are scattered around as litter?

Answer

The following chart shows the time taken for commonly used materials to biodegrade:

Item

Time taken to biodegrade

Cotton rags

1-5 months

Paper

2-5 months

Rope

3-14 months

Orange peels

6 months

Wool socks

1-5 years

Plastic coated paper milk cartons

5 years

Leather shoes

25-40 years

Nylon fabric

30-40 years

Tin cans

50-100 years

Aluminium cans

80-100 years

Glass bottles

1 million years

Plastic bottles

Do not biodegrade at all

 

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Some More Questions From Chemical Reactions and Equations Chapter

An aquarium is known as an artificial ecosystem. Why?

Give examples of herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and parasites.

State two differences between a consumer and a producer.

What happens when an organism dies?

What will happen if there were no decomposers?

Distinguish between food chain and food web.

What role organisms play in:
(i) Water cycle    (ii) Oxygen cycle    (iii) Nitrogen cycle.

What are biogeochemical cycles? Explain a few of them with the help of line diagrams.

Why are natural ecosystems more or less balanced systems? If you remove all the phytoplanktons from a pond what will happen to it?

Is it possible that the food chains have more than six steps? Support your answer with reasons.