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• v  separate (substances) into constituent elements or parts
• v  lose a stored charge, magnetic flux, or current
• v  break down
  The bodies decomposed in the heat

• Food scraps are a recent focus for recyclers in part because, unlike glass and plastic, organic waste will decompose once it's put in the ground.
• As legislators around the globe debate whether to tax or ban outright these petroleum-based products--which experts estimate take up to 1,000 years to decompose--celebrities have .
• Criminologists and forensic anthropologists use these research facilities to study how bodies decompose and at what rate in various natural environments.

• break up
• break down
• disintegrate
• decay
• rot
• molder
• moulder

News & Articles

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• Mulch helps keep plant roots healthy
  Joseph J. Reuben III, owner of Reuben Hardware at 2323 S. Main Road in Vineland, carries bags of mulch. / .Staff photo/Charles J. Olson SH13F103YARDSMART June 17, 2013 -- Leaves can be used as mulch, but they won't hold their loft and may begin to decompose before summer's end.
  June 28, 2013 - Daily Journal
• Plastic Carrier Bags: Enzymes Make Them the Sustainable Alternative to Biodegradable Plastics
  LONDON, June 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Additive ensures that PE packaging decomposes - advantages over plastic bags based on corn starch An ecologically correct shopping bag from the cornfield - sounds ...
  June 26, 2013 - PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance

Quotes

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• Mark Harmon in Science Daily (press release)
  In ecology there's a bias toward understanding how things grow,Harmon said. "But my studies are mostly on how things die and decompose, and that's what's happening here. When trees across the West appear to be dying at twice the rate they...
• Cyril Wecht in Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
  Hydropower has always been considered the cleanest form of power generation. But as dams prevent organic matters from flowing down stream, organic matters trapped at the bottom of reservoirs are deprived of the oxygen they need to decompose, thus... Sun Yat-sen http://www.google.com/url?q=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen&source=dictionary&usg=AFQjCNEwCkKGvArjgZSE1HkKkX9ElWGKSQ Independent Online http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.iol.co.za/index.php%3Fset_id%3D14%26click_id%3D143%26art_id%3Dqw1165558865413S360&source=dictionary&usg=AFQjCNEXE4sGO8j0_nSWpOLqh9PFFnzM3Q Dec 8, 2006 25536 34385 decompose Here we're talking about soft tissues and sufficient maintenance of some degree of anatomical integrity to see what is here," Wecht said. "Tissues decompose and shrink. It's far different than looking for bullets and skull fractures."