decompose

“Human excrement can take over a year to decompose in the desert environment of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Now imagine the impact of 500,000 to a million people pooping in a fairly limited desert area over the course of a year.”

It is used in solving antibiotic resistance and to image enzymes that can decompose plastics.

Because bodies decompose incredibly quickly in the sweltering heat, the total number is almost certainly higher.

Petroleum-based plastics never fully decompose; they break down into smaller and smaller pieces, which have now been found in the deepest trenches of our oceans, in the snows atop the highest mountains, in our air, water, food and bodies.

There are other ways to enjoy pumpkins – for example, if you decompose it with koji mold, it creates a delicious pumpkin amazake, a Japanese fermented sweet rice drink.