Wasting away: Our garbage by the numbers
In today's culture of mass consumption, the things we throw away often vanish from our minds, but all that trash has to go somewhere. Look at the numbers on garbage and you'll see it's more than just trashy — it's appalling. Luckily, there's plenty we can do about it.
By Laura MossWed, Sep 07 2011 at 7:59 AM EST
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WASTEFUL WAYS: Americans produced about 243 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2009, according to the EPA. (Photo: D'Arcy Norman/Flickr)
Garbage
4.4 pounds
Trash the average American produces daily (EPA)
1,600 pounds
Trash the average American produces annually. With the garbage produced in America alone, you could form a line of filled-up garbage trucks that reach the moon. (EPA)
72 million tons
Amount of containers and packaging in 2009 in the U.S. municipal solid waste stream or MSW. Packaging makes up 30 percent of America's trash — the largest portion of MSW generated. (EPA)
60 percent
Amount of trash that can be recycled (U.S. Department of Labor)
13 percent
Amount of MSW that's actually recycled (Clean Air Council)
Plastic bags
60,000
60,000
Number of plastic bags Americans use every year (Clean Air Council)
30,000 tons
Landfill waste created from plastic bags each year (Clean Air Council)
Less than 1 percent
Amount of plastic bags that are recycled (Clean Air Council)
$4,000
Cost of recycling 1 ton of plastic bags (Clean Air Council)
$32
The amount that recycled product can be sold for (Clean Air Council)
How you can improve the numbers
Paper
15 million
Sheets of office paper used in the U.S. every 5 minutes. The average American uses roughly the equivalent of one 100-foot-tall Douglas fir tree in paper and wood products each year. (EPA)
100 million
Number of trees cut down in the U.S. annually to make the paper for junk mail (Clean Air Council)
9,960
Pieces of junk mail that are printed, shipped, delivered and disposed of in the U.S. every 3 seconds. (Chris Jordan)
How you can improve the numbers
Plastics
50,000
Estimated number of pieces of plastic floating in every square mile of the world's oceans (Clean Air Council)
2.4 million pounds
Amount of plastic pollution that enters the world's oceans every hour (Clean Air Council)
1 million
Number of plastic cups that are consumed on airline flights in the U.S. every 6 hours (Chris Jordan)
2 million
Number of plastic beverage bottles that are used in the U.S. ever 5 minutes. The number of plastic water bottles discarded in the U.S. every week could circle the Earth five times. (Plastic Pollution Coalition)
93 percent
Amount of plastics that are not recovered and go to landfills in the U.S. (Plastic Pollution Coalition)
500
Number of disposable cups the average American office worker uses every year. (Clean Air Council)
500
Number of years a Styrofoam cup discarded today will remain in a landfill (Environmental Center of San Luis Obispo)
How you can improve the numbers
- Reduce your plastic waste
- Don't buy bottled drinks
- Use reusable bags and produce bags
- Get involved with anti-plastic campaigns
E-waste
20 to 50 million metric tons
Amount of electronics the world throws away annually. That's the equivalent of trashing 45,500 to 125,000 fully loaded 747s each year. (Ewasteguide.info)
10-18 percent
Amount of electronics that are recycled. (Ewasteguide.info)
304 million
Electronics disposed of from U.S. households in 2005 — two-thirds of them still worked. (Clean Air Council)
18,500
Number of homes that could be powered for a year if we recycled all of the cellphones retired annually. (Clean Air Council)
How you can improve the numbers
- Green your e-waste
- Recycle your electronics
- Repurpose or recycle your cellphone
- Dispose of e-waste properly
Food
96 billion pounds
Amount of food Americans waste every year. If only 25 percent of that food waste were recovered, we could feed 2
0 million people. (USDA)
0 million people. (USDA)
25 percent
Amount of prepared food Americans throw away (Scientific American)
$590
Cost of food thrown away by the average household of four (Scientific American)
How you can improve the numbers
Use those leftovers — MNN has ideas for leftovers from spaghetti to hamburgers.
Click for photo credits
Photo (garbage can): Syb Wartna/Flickr
Photo (plastic bags): ZUMA Press
Photo (logging): ZUMA Press
Photo (ocean garbage): Cesarharada.com/Flickr
Photo (plastic pollution): ZUMA Press
Photo (e-waste): ZUMA Press
Photo (food waste): Nick Saltmarsh/Flickr
MNN homepage photo: iStockphoto
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Comments
susk29
09/19/2011 09:39 AM
I find that the issue of landfill and the perils of our over-consumption fills my mind on a daily basis. I struggle with grocery shopping every week i.e what food packaging can be recycled and what can't. It's a fight with my conscience on every shopping trip. I've been blogging about this issue (http:www.100daystochangetheworld.com), but what inspired me to start a blog in the first place was the idea that we can do something about all of this. That's what I particularly enjoyed about this mnn.... More
Reality Check
09/12/2011 14:49 PM
Food waste can be up to 90% water, which when put in a landfill will no longer return to the Water Cycle (at least not for a long while). Since "water is the new oil/gold", why should we be taking more from the bucket and sealing it in landfills? Compost food wastes, and put ice/water from fast-food cups in the sink or out in the flower bed - not the trash can.
Rebecca Doane
09/07/2011 10:23 AM
This is so sad! Cant imagine what the world will be like in 20 years!
