Here's what I'm wondering. I was walking to work and I smell garbage and you know that garbage smell that everyone has smelled.

Stinky city smell.

I was thinking wherever you go in the world that smell is always the same. People

throw away things that smell very different in different parts of the world, but the smell

that comes out of the trash can always identical.

On the line with us now is Rachel Burke's.

She's a chemist at Done College.

Ray, can you explain this?

Well, no matter where you go,

people are going to be eating stuff with protein you know red meat or

pork or turkey or chicken or fish and eggs and and really it's the protein and when it decomposes and breaks down.

That's the main stinky culprit.

So what you're saying basically is, as these things decompose,

the chemicals were left with at the end of that process, compose the

chemical's at the end of that process are the same.

Well, it's not really the end.

It's kind of stuff is really thinking

towards the beginning?

Oh, then it starts to dissipate.

There's a point where, you know, food or waste

can break down to a point where it's not thinking anymore.

How long does it take to get to that not stinky phase?

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