re: #271 zombie

Please explain then.

If something biodegrades, it breaks down into its constituent components. If it’s nonbiodegradable, it doesn’t. (Under natural conditions.) If a nonbidegradable product is toxic to the biosphere, then it isn’t truly nonbiodegradable.

If it’s leaching toxins or chemicals, then it’s degrading, hence is biodegradable.

Perhaps there are other definitions?

First, in order for an object to be called nonbiodegradable, it merely has to contain nonbiodegradable components. There are shampoos I mentioned upthread that are like this- some ingredients do not degrade, but others do. The shampoo is still not considered biodegradable. Many ‘nonbiodegradable’ objects contain various chemicals that can leach into the environment.

Second, compounds can be soluble without being biodegradable. You still have the substance of the object itself breaking into smaller and smaller component parts, and eventually into free molecules and clumps, but those molecules happen to be stable enough that they don’t break down.

Third, nonbiodegradable susbtances can still be toxic. Toxins can be toxic over and over again. Mercury is a wonderful example of this. It obviously doesn’t break down, and it doesn’t get natuarlly ‘fixed’ into another form. It continues doing its damage wherever it is.

Something not breaking down into something else doesn’t make it inert. It may still react and affect the body without breaking down. In fact, many poisons work this way- they simply replace something else in the body, and block it from doing its job. Arsenic does this to phosphorus atoms.

Hell, some drugs work this way as well, which is why they stay in the system so long- our body has no chemistry to break them down, and at most it can flush them.