Physics & Science

Calculations grounded in physics, chemistry, biology, and the wider natural sciences

If the Spanish Armada Had Dropped a Plastic Bottle, Would It Be Gone by Now?

If the Spanish Armada Had Dropped a Plastic Bottle, Would It Be Gone by Now?

A PET bottle tossed into the English Channel during the Spanish Armada (1588) would still be intact today — with 12 years left on the clock. PET takes roughly 450 years to degrade in marine conditions, and that timeline gets much worse in a landfill. We calculate polymer breakdown timelines, the cube-law fragmentation math that turns one bottle into 18 trillion particles, and why NOAA still can't give you a definitive answer.