Choose the correct answer from each of the four options given below:
Which one of the following is non-biodegradable?
Topic: Non-biodegradable waste
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Pick an option and check your answer. The full worked answer is below either way.
Answer
(a) DDT.
DDT is a synthetic pesticide that decomposers cannot break down, so it PERSISTS in the environment for decades. Vegetable peel, cardboard (made from wood pulp) and bark are all organic and biodegradable.
THE TEST that sorts almost any such list: ask whether the substance was ever ALIVE, or came from something alive.
WHY DDT IS THE CLASSIC EXAMPLE: being non-biodegradable and fat-soluble, it accumulates along food chains by BIOMAGNIFICATION — becoming more concentrated at each trophic level. Birds of prey at the top received doses high enough to thin their eggshells, and several species nearly disappeared before DDT was banned.
Cardboard is the near-miss here: it looks manufactured, but paper comes from wood pulp and composts readily.
DDT.