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Would a styrofoam cup actually stay in reasonably good shape for 400 years after being buried?
Mostly a curiosity thing. I sometimes use styrofoam peanuts in planters for drainage purposes, and after a single growing season, they've already started to show signs of degrading. Not that microplastics are a good thing, but it also makes me wonder if they would actually stick around in good condition for 400 years.
If it's actually make out of polystyrene, I've read that is supposed to take 500 years like a lot of other plastics.
Many packing peanuts are biodegradable these days though, so it might not be actual styrofoam (polystyrene + air).
Those packing peanuts are made from corn and are basically edible.
Or if you wet them, they get sticky and you can stick them together to make stuff.
My mum gave me those for toys as a kid, to make stuff like you described. Ate a fair few, am fine.
I think they're literally stale undusted cheetos.
I too have ate a few as an adult.
I think the new ones are made from potato starch
It would be plastic for a very long time, but the cup wouldn't likely survive very long. It would get ground down to plastic dust to be ingested within a few years unless it was in a particularly stable area.