Newspapers take 6 weeks to breakdown
Apple Core-2 months
Plastic bag-10-20 years
Aluminum can-80-200 years
Glass bottle-1 million years
Styrofoam-never
Most plastic bottles-never
Source: U.S. National Park Service "Garbage in, Garbage Out"
Audubon Magazine Sept/Oct 1999

I never really was a huge purchaser of styrofoam containers. After reading these stats I'm going to re-think what I do purchase. In the cafeteria at school I ask for the standard cafeteria tray made of plastic rather than styrofoam. Our school system uses a lot of styrofoam when serving lunch and breakfast. I checked into biodegradable styrofoam and it would cost two to three times more than what they already spend. Financially we can't afford to do what's best for the environment so that's why I decided to use plastic when at all possible and I encourage my students to also.