When recycled, a single 1/2 gallon milk carton can be turned into five sheets of high quality office paper - this makes cartons a valuable recycling commodity.

Litter is the cigarette butts, soda cans, coffee cups, beer bottles, plastic bags, gum wrappers and other items you may see along the side of a road, blown up against a fence or swirling around an empty lot.

You may see litter in a park where people have been picnicking or near campgrounds or at the beach after a busy day.

When people throw things from their car, drop things on the ground or even if someone aims for a garbage can, misses and leaves it, that is littering.

Litter beside the road is ugly and how long it stays before decaying may be an ugly surprise.

It takes a single sheet of paper about 2 weeks to start decomposing;
a simple cotton rag takes 1-5 months
a piece of rope takes 10-12 months
a wool sock takes about a year;
and a bamboo pole takes 1-3 years.

a painted wooden stakes takes about 13 years;
a tin can, 100 years;
an aluminum can, 200-500 years;
and the plastic ring from a 6-pack, 450 years

No one has any idea how long it takes for a glass bottle to decompose.