The U.S. generates 190 million tons of solid waste a year — enough to fill a bumper-to-bumper convoy of garbage trucks halfway to the moon. So why aren't we up to our necks in garbage?

Nature recycles garbage all the time, and this recycling is essential to the availability of nutrients for living things. Nature's recyclers are tiny bacteria and fungi, which break down plant and animal waste, making nutrients available for other living things in the process. This is known as decomposition.

Decomposition involves a whole community of large and small organisms that serve as food for each other, clean up each other's debris, control each other's populations and convert materials to forms that others can use. The bacteria and fungi that initiate the recycling process, for example, become food for other microbes, earthworms, snails, slugs, flies, beetles and mites, all of which in turn feed larger insects and birds. You can think of the Decomposition Column as a miniature compost pile or landfill, or as leaf litter on a forest floor. Through the sides of the bottle you can observe different substances decompose and explore how moisture, air, temperature and light affect the process.

Many landfills seal garbage in the earth, excluding air and moisture. How might this affect decomposition? Will a foam cup ever rot? What happens to a fruit pie, or tea bag? Which do you think decomposes faster, banana peels or leaves? If you add layers of soil to the column, how might they affect the decomposition process? What would you like to watch decompose?