Lets take a walk, shall we?

It's 1996, March to be exact. Spring has sprung, the ground is starting to thaw, summer is just around the corner. With us on our walk is a typical family: 3.2 kids and a dog, all following hand in hand with Mom and Dad in the lead.

Today is a special day. They've brought with them all the necessities for a day at the park.

Mom and Dad set everything out on the cotton tablecloth draped over the picnic table: sandwiches in a plastic bag, some oranges, a carton of milk, a six-pack of pop, a plastic bottle of water, a jar of pickles, and a can of peanuts. They've got a newspaper for some reading material.

The kids brought a skipping rope, a leather shoe that the dog likes to chew on, and a wool sock that was put into an old pair of nylon pantyhose (the dog jumps at it when the kids swing it around).

What a day! Everything was going just great. After playing, eating and running around with the dog, everyone was exhausted.

Just as they were about to leave, the sky turned an ugly shade of gray. Within minutes the rain started to pour out of the sky as if someone had spilled a pitcher of water. Everyone ran to the car without a moment's hesitation. Once safe and dry, they realized that all the things they had brought with them were left outside. Oh well! A little litter won't hurt, will it? Not a perfect day, but not a bad day for the family either.

This type of walk has happened thousands of times in thousands of places around the world with millions of families.

Now the quiz . . . Ready?

Which items in the story do you think would be here if left scattered about as litter in 5 months, in 5 years, in 20 years, in 100 years in 500 years, in a million years, and forever? Think about it. What would degrade first, the peels from the oranges, the tablecloth or the newspaper? The rate at which these items deteriorate is called their "biodegradability". The numbers we're using here are for items left out as litter. For organics, like paper and food waste, the process goes much faster in a compost pile.

It's obvious that the empty cans of beer and the plastic bottles would take longer, but how much longer?

Give up? You best be sitting down. This could take forever.

The cotton table cloth wins. It will take from 1 to 5 months. The newspaper comes a close second, from 2 to 5 months. Remember the skipping rope? It'll be around for another 3 to 14 months. Ah! those pesky orange peels: 6 months, you can set your watch by them. Next comes the wool socks from 1 to 5 years, not including the smell. The cigarette butts beside them in the grass will last even longer: 1 to 12 years. Guess what? In terms of biodegradability, we haven't even started yet!

The old milk carton: 5 Years. The plastic bag that held it all: 10 to 15 Years.

Had enough yet? The old leather shoe the dog chewed on 25 to 40 Years. The panty hose 30 to 40 Years, (the sock left the panty hose behind 25 years ago!)

Tin can of peanuts: 50 to 100 YEARS.

Aluminum cans: 80 to 100 YEARS.

Plastic 6-pack holder: 450 YEARS, not counting the thousands of birds that die after getting caught in the rings.

THE GLASS JAR -- 1 MILLION YEARS

AND LAST PLACE or is it FIRST PLACE, the PLASTIC BOTTLE -- lasts FOREVER!!!

The tragedy in all this is that every item described here can be RECYCLED -- think