Many people want to leave a lasting legacy, whether through creative masterpieces, groundbreaking technologies, or historical achievements. However, the most lasting impression people can have on the world is considerably less intentional: our dumped rubbish. Every soda can, plastic bag, outmoded smartphone, and disintegrating structure adds to the expanding geological record of human activity. These vestiges, known as technofossils, are manmade fossils that have preserved traces of modern civilization across millions of years.

Unlike bones or shells, many of these materials—plastics, metals, and composites—are designed to last, making them resistant to natural deterioration. As paleontologists turn their focus from ancient fossils to current artifacts, they discover how our ordinary objects may influence Earth’s distant future. The emergence of technofossils raises serious concerns about humanity’s environmental impact, prompting us to reevaluate what we leave as our ultimate legacy.

The Legacy of Everyday Disposal

Many people aspire to leave an indelible mark—to compose music that outperforms Mozart, to write a play more timeless than Shakespeare, or to score the winning goal in a World Cup final. However, creating a lasting impression on our world is surprisingly simple. Finish a soft drink, dump the can, ditch previous year’s fashion trends, upgrade your phone, or improve your home. Everyday efforts like these build a legacy that could last billions of years.

Paleontologists primarily examine fossil records from the distant past. They look at how ancient animal and plant remains—dinosaur bones, ammonites, crab shells, and even fossilized petals—have been preserved in incredible detail over millions of years.

Recently, attention turned to modern artifacts to see how they could fossilize over time. The commonplace artifacts we trash may become future fossils, a phenomenon known as technofossils. The Book Discarded: How Technofossils Will Be Our Ultimate Legacy looks more into the subject.

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The Rise of Technofossils

One of the most startling elements of future fossils is the massive amount of artificial items that people have introduced to the Earth. Buildings, roads, vehicles, and electrical equipment now weigh more than a trillion tonnes, more than all living organisms on the planet combined. This richness provides a vast amount of raw material for fossilization. Furthermore, the majority of these things are engineered to be more resistant to corrosion and decay than real bones or shells, providing them a significant advantage during the fossilization process. Many of the elements we make are wholly new to Earth’s geological past. Take aluminium cans as an example. While wasted aluminium is increasingly widespread, pure aluminium metal is virtually non-existent in nature. In just 70 years, we’ve produced nearly 500 million tons—enough to cover the whole United States and a portion of Canada in aluminium foil. Aluminium can slowly corrode when buried in sediment layers, creating a can-shaped imprint in the rock coated with minute clay crystals. The plastic liner within the can, which is insulated from sunlight, may also last for an extended period. Together, these technofossils will generate distinct fossil signatures of our period.

Fossilized Food, Fashion, and Technology: Evidence of Human Domination

Bones, typically the prototypical fossils, will also help shape our geological legacy. Chicken bones are likely to be among the most abundant. Today’s supermarket grill chicken may appear commonplace, yet it has become the most abundant bird species on the planet, accounting for two-thirds of total bird biomass. Their excessive presence raises the likelihood of fossilization.

The manner we dispose of these bones contributes to their preservation. Discarded in plastic waste bags and put in landfills, many lined with plastic, these bones undergo mummification, which aids in fossilization. Future geologists will find massive chicken bones, proving human dominance over other species. Furthermore, these fossils will contain biological evidence such as more prominent but weak bones, symptoms of osteoporosis, and deformities induced by fast weight growth. Future paleontologists may conjecture about a bird species that quickly flourished yet was physiologically fragile and short-lived. They may discover the disturbing reality of genetically altered chickens raised for intensive feeding and killing within weeks of birth.

Another surprising type of future fossil will be synthetic clothing. Natural fiber clothing is rarely preserved in the fossil record because moths, bacteria, and other scavengers degrade them swiftly. However, polyester and other synthetic materials mark a new era in fossilized fashion. These materials, made from oil-based polymers, are indigestible to most bacteria, allowing them to survive for potentially millions of years. Fossilized clothes may perplex future paleontologists—flattened and crumpled relics of garments whose shapes and functions are complex to identify.

Beyond clothing, technological trash will leave its mark. Concrete, for example, is a highly abundant artificial rock today. Electronic garbage, too, will add to the fossil record. While silicon chips—the backbone of computers and mobile phones—are small and difficult to keep, surrounding components such as keyboards, displays, and wires may last longer. For example, Patterns on fossilized keyboards may pique future researchers’ interest, just as paleontologists today analyze fossilized patterns to derive ancient purposes. The decipherability of these fossils will be determined by who discovers them—whether highly advanced mice with five-fingered paws or a sentient cephalopod species.

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Consequences of Our Fossil Footprint

While thinking about our future fossil legacy is intriguing, there are real consequences. The elements used to create tomorrow’s fossils are today’s pollutants, which are unattractive, toxic, and increasingly challenging to manage. Plastic garbage in the water, technological waste stacking up, and industrial materials filling landfills are more than just environmental issues; they actively influence our planet’s geological future.

Understanding how fossilization begins allows us to address pressing concerns. Will plastic pollution continue to travel in ocean currents, or will it be buried in marine sediments? Will landfills be left undisturbed, or will increasing sea levels disclose their contents? The answers may lie in future rock formations, but we must address these challenges now.

Our legacy is no longer limited to the books we write, the music we make, or the historical events we shape; it also includes the things we leave behind. Whether we intend it or not, we are irreversibly changing the Earth’s geological history. The concern is not whether we will be remembered but how future generations—human or otherwise—will interpret the traces we leave.

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