”Plastic a Solution” — an information evening with a a workshop element was held in Lismore on Wednesday last 6th March . This event was organised by Lismore Tidy Towns in association with Ms. Ella Ryan Environment Awareness Officer Waterford City& Co. Co.. Ms . Ryan facilitated the evening and made the presentation. All of those there on the night came away with thought provoking ideas on the reduction of single use plastics in our homes and why this is essential to this generation and for future ones. The facts that surprised many of us was the length of time that it takes plastic to break down. Drop a bottle of tomato ketchup on the floor and you will be thankful for polyethylene terephthalate or PET– the nearly indestructible plastic used to make most containers and bottles. In Ireland that bottle should go into the recycling bin but if it does not and ends up in a landfill you might have second thoughts . Why? because petroleum -based plastics like PET don’t break down in the same way that organic material does. Wood, grass and food scraps undergo a process known as biodegradation when they are buried which is another way of stating that they are transformed by bacteria in the soil into other useful compound. Bacteria however turn their noses up at plastic and will skip any meal made of plastic items. According to worldwide research carried out below are the estimated time for some everyday items that are all around us to decompose in landfill sites: