How Much Garbage Does a Person Create in One Year?
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According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average American produces about 4.4 pounds (2 kg) of garbage a day, or a total of 29 pounds (13 kg) per week and 1,600 pounds (726 kg) a year. This only takes into consideration the average household member and does not count industrial waste or commercial trash. If this sounds like a staggering number, you would be surprised to know that Americans are not the number one producers of garbage in the world. In Mexico, the average household produces 30 percent more garbage than in America.
While the numbers may be difficult to grasp, consider this: with the garbage produced in America alone, you could form a line of filled-up garbage trucks and reach the moon. Or cover the state of Texas two and a half times. Or bury more than 990,000 football fields under six-foot high (1.8 meter high) piles of waste. According to WM Recycle America, LLC, Americans alone throw away enough aluminum to duplicate the full commercial air fleet of the US.
So how is it that so much garbage is produced? Most of the stuff that fills the landfills is packaging, especially in the form of fast-food containers, but office paper, disposable diapers, Styrofoam inserts, and plain plastic bags also contribute an important percentage to the total waste production of the country. In fact, paper waste makes for about 35 percent of the total material filling up landfills. Considering that most of this paper could be recycled, much of the waste problem is easily avoidable.
Recycling is a big part of the solution to the garbage problem. Newspapers, aluminum containers, and certain plastics can be recycled to reuse in a different form, thus saving space in landfills. Another way to help with the waste problem is to reduce the amount of garbage you produce. This can be done by buying less, buying things in smaller packaging, and simply reusing what you have. You can also buy used, which means you do not produce additional waste because you do not have to discard any more packaging. Donating things you do not longer want also helps. Rather than going to landfills, second-hand clothing, electronic equipment, and even furniture can be passed on to others to extend their usable life.
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We should help out the world! - anon35537
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How much does rubbish cost in Germany to throw away?How can one reduce the volume of ones rubbish and reduce the costs? How much rubbish does the average person produce per week?
- anon29456
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Before you recycle you should reduce the amount you use the reuse anything you can (be creative!) and then when you get to recycling you shouldn't have much to recycle. - anon23888
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In response to anon20243: "So, why throw away perfectly good paper that can be made into new paper or products? Why throw it in a landfill where it will take up space and go to no good use."Paper sitting in a landfill is not "no good use." This paper is helping offset exactly what oil drills are doing. Oil drills take hydrocarbons from the ground and we burn them to make CO2. These trees which we make paper from take in this CO2, and convert it to solid matter. When we bury this carbon underground, we are actually putting the carbon back where it belongs. If we recycle all of our paper, no new trees can be cut down, no new trees can be planted, and we all know that a new tree takes in way more CO2 than an old tree. So shoving these trees in the ground is helping our problem with global warming! - koolaid123
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While we are talking about paper not being biodegradable, what about the benefits of it sitting in a landfill? If this paper sits in a landfill, it will sit there, storing Carbon, while we can grow more trees to absorb more carbon, cut the trees and put more paper in these landfills, helping with global warming, which I know you people are so fond about. If we grow tons and tons of trees, and stick them in the ground to store carbon forever, then we are helping make up for the carbon dioxide you put into the air every day, simply by being alive. If you care about this planet so much, just think about how much less carbon dioxide there would be if there were a few less people alive... - anon21562
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In response to anon19571: "Paper waste is biodegradable, I wouldn't worry about our landfills becoming full with paper. Not to mention paper is 100% renewable." For something to be able to biodegrade, it needs to be in the right conditions. Sure paper is biodegradable, but surrounded by junk there is no way it's going to be able to do so in landfill conditions. One might say carrots and hotdogs are biodegradable, but in one landfill, these items were found in perfect condition...over 40 years old. Doesn't sound like it's biodegrading to me. So please, just recycle it. - anon21546
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In response to anon19571: "Paper waste is biodegradable, I wouldn't worry about our landfills becoming full with paper. Not to mention paper is 100% renewable." So, why throw away perfectly good paper that can be made into new paper or products? Why throw it in a landfill where it will take up space and go to no good use. Sure, paper is renewable, but do you know how long it takes for a tree to grow before it can be cut down to make paper? Sure, let's just throw everything away that is biodegradable... - anon20243
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Paper waste is biodegradable, I wouldn't worry about our landfills becoming full with paper. Not to mention paper is 100% renewable. - anon19571
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Disputing the text, there are many arguments that state source reduction as the best way to ameliorate our garbage problem. Remember the 3Rs of resources and recycling?
Reduce, reuse, recycle. They are placed in this order for a reason: -Reduce is first because if we reduce how much we use or buy then less is put into the waste stream. -Reuse is second because if we reuse what we buy many times then it lowers the amount we have to buy. -Recycle takes the most energy and isn't terribly efficient and is reactive rather than proactive. It is a very good thing to have, but of the three Rs there is a reason why it is last. All of these can save people money especially Reducing and Reusing! - anon15581
Editor's reply: good point! olittlewood also has a good point--start small by replacing things like paper towels and napkins with washcloths and cloth napkins. buy reusable grocery bags, and products with less packaging. once you start making these changes, you'll become more aware of how much you are using, and how you can reduce, reuse and recycle!
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In the second paragraph, what time frame do "the garbage produced in America alone" comparisons refer to? One year for the whole nation? - moomydo
Editor's reply: good question! according to the author, it's over a year period.
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those reuseable bags sound like a good idea. and instead of grabbing the plastic bags, how bout' the paper ones? they can still be reused.... - anon9754
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Any idea how much waste is created from fast food containers? - anon9694
Editor's reply: i couldn't find a specific number of how much, but experts estimate that fast food litter makes up about 20% of all trash, and trash from snack items such as chip bags, soda cans, etc. make up an additional 20%. it varies from city to city, and state to state, but there are few laws and ordinances in place to encourage fast food establishments to recycle wrappers and/or use less packaging for their food.
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you'd be surprised how much you can recycle on your own. i've always recycled the obvious, like newspaper, cans and plastic, but other stuff like aluminum foil, the rolls from your toilet paper and paper towels can also be thrown in with your cardboard and paper. you'd be surprised how much of those you accumulate even in one week! i also purchase a big pack of cheap, white washcloths to have in the kitchen to wipe faces and clean messes, instead of reaching for a paper towel. it's easy to just grab a paper towel to quickly wipe up a little spill, or to dry your hands. i still have a roll of paper towels in the kitchen, but try really hard to use a washcloth instead. for this year my goal is to bring home fewer of those walmart and target bags...i have a huge bag full of them. i try to recycle them in waste baskets, to wrap dirty diapers in, etc., but i still find that i accumulate a TON of them. you can drop them off at walmart to recycle, but i am going to buy some grocery bags that i can reuse and wash. also, i'm going to try to replace my paper napkins with cloth napkins. i know that this requires more washing, so i guess i should start buying some environmentally friendly laundry detergent! and wash it on cold! you could go on and on, but i think that for the most part, it's all easy stuff to implement. - olittlewood
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how much waste can be recycled???? - anon7228
Editor's reply: estimates of how much of your household trash can be recycled range from 66% to 84%. reportedly, approximately 80% of household trash ends up in landfills. of course, the amount of household trash that is recyclable depends on what type of products you're buying...environmental experts recommend purchasing products with the least amount of packaging to reduce trash.
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