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KNOW YOUR TRASH FACTS

About 80% of what Americans throw away is recyclable, yet our recycling rate is just 33%. (Environmental Protection Agency)

More than ½ million trees are saved each year by recycling paper in Boulder County. (Eco-Cycle)

By recycling more than 57,000 tons of steel cans, we reduce greenhouse gasses equivalent to taking more than 21,000 cars off the road each year. (WM)

Recycling glass instead of making it from silica sand reduces mining waste by 70%, water use by 50%, and air pollution by 20%. (Environmental Defense Fund)

If we recycled all of the newspapers printed in the U.S. on a typical Sunday, we would save 550,000 trees—or about 26 million trees per year. (California Department of Conservation)

The energy saved each year by steel recycling is equal to the electrical power used by 18 million homes each year—or enough energy to last Los Angeles residents for eight years. (Steel Recycling Institute)

The total volume of solid waste produced in the U.S. each year is equal to the weight of more than 5,600 Nimitz Class air craft carriers, 247,000 space shuttles, or 2.3 million Boeing 747 jumbo jets. (Beck)

An average kitchen-size bag of trash contains enough energy to light a 100-watt light bulb for more than 24 hours. (Covanta)

The solid waste industry currently produces more than half of America's renewable energy, more than combined energy outputs of the solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and wind power industries. (U.S. DOE, Energy Information Administration)

Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 trees, 2 barrels of oil (enough to run the average car for 1,260 miles), 4,100 kilowatts of energy (enough power for the average home for 6 months), 3.2 cubic yards of landfill space, and 60 pounds of air pollution. (Trash to Cash)

Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough energy to operate a TV for 3 hours. (Eco-Cycle)

Glass can be recycled an indefinite number of times and never wears out. (National Recycling Coalition)

Making glass from recycled material cuts related water pollution by 50%. (National Recycling Coalition)

If we put all of the solid waste collected in the U.S. in a line of average garbage trucks, that line of trucks could cross the country, extending from New York City to Los Angeles, more than 100 times. (Beck)

Five PET bottles (plastic soda bottles) yield enough fiber for one extra large T-shirt, one square food of carpet or enough fiber fill to fill one ski jacket. (National Recycling Coalition)

The average person has the opportunity to recycle more than 25,000 cans in a lifetime. (National Recycling Coalition)

Americans throw away enough office paper each year to build a 12-foot-high wall of paper from New York to Seattle. (National Recycling Coalition)

The average American discards seven and a half pounds of garbage every day. (National Recycling Coalition)

Once an aluminum can is recycled, it's back on the grocery shelf as another aluminum can in 60 days. (www.aluminum.org)

Americans throw away enough aluminum every three months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet. (www.aluminum.org)

Tossing away an aluminum can wastes as much energy as pouring out half of that can's volume of gasoline. (www.aluminum.org)

Enough aluminum cans were recycled last year to fill a hollow Empire State Building 24 times. (www.aluminum.org)

The 62.6 billion cans recycled last year alone would make 171 circles around the earth at its equator. (www.aluminum.org)

Some 119,482 cans are recycled every minute nationwide. (www.aluminum.org)

Over the past 10 years, the number of aluminum cans recycled has doubled. (www.aluminum.org)

More than one million tons of aluminum containers and packaging are thrown away each year. (www.aluminum.org)

Recycling 1 ton of aluminum saves the equivalent in energy of 2,350 gallons of gasoline. This is equivalent to the amount of electricity used by the average home over a period of 10 years. (www.aluminum.org)

By using recycled aluminum instead of virgin ore, aluminum manufactures save enough energy needed to supply electricity to a city the size of Pittsburgh for about six years. (www.aluminum.org)

In 2006, the amount of paper recovered for recycling averaged 357 pounds for each man, woman, and child in the United States. (http://earth911.org)

Every ton of paper recycled saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space. (http://earth911.org)

By 2012, the paper industry’s goal is to recover 55 percent of all the paper Americans consume for recycling, which is approximately 55 million tons of paper. (http://earth911.org)

More than 37 percent of the fiber used to make new paper products in the United States comes from recycled sources. (http://earth911.org)

86 percent (approximately 254 million) of Americans have access to curbside or drop-off paper recycling programs. (http://earth911.org)

Every month, we throw out enough recyclable glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. (www.recycling-revolution.com)

The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100-watt light bulb for four hours. It also causes 20% less air pollution and 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials. (www.recycling-revolution.com)

Every year, Americans throw away enough office and writing paper to build a wall 12 feet high, stretching from Los Angeles to New York City. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

Recycling one ton of paper saves one acre of trees. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

If all the glass bottles and jars collected through recycling in the U.S. in one year were laid end-to-end, they would reach the Moon and half way back to the Earth. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

The volume of glass recycled by Americans in one year would fill New Jersey's Giants Stadium more than three times. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

Glass can be recycled an infinite number of times. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle will light a 100-watt bulb for four hours. (www.fairfaxcounty.gov)

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Municipal Solid Waste: Background

What is municipal solid waste?

Municipal solid waste (MSW), also called trash, garbage, refuse and rubbish, is the stuff we throw away everyday. In our trash are everyday items such as product packaging, grass clippings, furniture, clothing, bottles, food scraps, newspaper, appliances, and batteries that we do not need any more. MSW is generated by people and by businesses. Not counted as MSW are other discarded materials such as construction and demolition debris, municipal wastewater treatment sludge, and non-hazardous industrial wastes. Although these materials often end up in MSW landfills, they can also be sent to non-MSW landfills for disposal.

What’s in municipal solid waste?

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Municipal Solid Waste Generation, Recycling,
and Disposal in the United States: Facts and Figures for 2008 (December 2009), Paper and paperboard products are the largest component in the trash we generate (31.0%) followed by yard trimmings (13.2%), food waste (12.7%), plastic (12.0%), metals (8.4%), wood (6.6%), glass (4.9%), rubber/leather/textiles (7.9%) and other materials (3.3%).

How much garbage do Americans generate in a year?

According to the U.S. EPA, 250 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) were generated in 2008 – a slight decrease from the 254 million tons generated in 2007. (This decrease likely can be attributed to the economic downturn, the impact of various waste-reduction efforts, or a combination of the two.) In 1960, only 88.1 million tons of MSW were generated. Figure 2 graphically depicts MSW generation over time. The amount of garbage we produce is a function of the size of the population and the strength of the economy. As our population increases, our country generates more trash. A strong economy can also increase the size of the waste stream. Per person generation, however, can vary depending on other factors, including the "lightweighting" of products.

Figure 2. MSW Generation (EPA 2003)

How much trash does one person make in a year?

Each one of us made 4.5 pounds per day in 2008 – a decrease of 0.1 pounds per day from 2007. In 1960, an individual only generated 2.68 pounds per day. That 4.5 pounds per day, though, includes your share of the waste produced by America's businesses because EPA’s per person data includes both residential and commercial waste. EPA estimates that 55-65 percent of our garbage is generated in our homes and that 35-45 percent is generated by businesses or institutions.

As noted above, even though the total amount of garbage produced in America generally has increased as the population and the economy have grown, the amount produced by individual Americans can decrease. In the latter case, the use of lighter materials, such as plastics, in place of heavier metals, glass and paper and the increased use of mulching lawn mowers and backyard composting piles for yard waste causes per capita generation to decline. In fact, studies show that a century ago, Americans produced almost as much waste, on a per person basis, as we do today. A century ago we relied on coal to produce heat and energy in our houses. As a result, we had a lot of coal ash that had to be sent to disposal. Our generation of coal ash from homes and businesses started declining in 1940. After World War II, as we became more prosperous and our consumer society began to take off, we began to buy more and more packaged goods. Today, containers and packaging comprise 30.8 percent of the waste stream, followed by nondurable goods (such as newspapers and clothing and towels) with 23.5 percent of the waste stream, durable goods (refrigerators, computers, etc.) with 18.3 percent of the waste stream, yard waste (13.2%) and food waste (12.7%).

How much does waste “weigh” in a truck or a landfill?

The garbage that most people put in their trash cans is compacted in trash trucks with other garbage and then further compacted in a landfill. At the curbside, a cubic yard of trash will weigh between 100 and 200 pounds. Once it is compacted in a truck, it can weigh 350 to 400 pounds per cubic yard. Compaction at a landfill can increase the density considerably.

How is our trash managed?

Municipal solid waste can be recycled, burned or landfilled. According to EPA, 82.9 million tons (33.2%) were recycled and composted in 2008, 31.6 million tons (12.64%) were incinerated, and 135.1 million tons (54%) were landfilled. Landfilling has been and remains the most popular method of waste management in the United States. Table 1 shows how MSW has been managed since 1960.

Table 1. Municipal Solid Waste Management, 1960 to 2008 (million tons)

Management Method	1960	1970	1980	1990	1995	2000	2005	2008
Generation	88.1	121.1	151.6	205.2	213.7	232.0	245.6	250.0
Recycling	5.6	8.0	14.5	29.0	46.2	51.2	58.4	60.8
Composting	---	---	---	4.2	9.6	16.5	20.6	22.1
Incineration	27.0	25.1	13.7	31.9	35.5	33.7	33.4	31.6
Landfilling	55.5	87.9	123.4	140.1	122.4	130.6	133.3	135.1

What is the solid waste management hierarchy?

EPA promotes the solid waste management hierarchy as the best way to manage solid waste. Source reduction or waste prevention, which includes reuse, comes first, followed by recycling. Waste that cannot be prevented or recycled can be incinerated or landfilled according to the proper federal and state regulations. EPA does not distinguish between disposal methods (i.e., incineration and landfilling are considered equal).

What is integrated waste management?

Hierarchies can be rigid and fail to provide the flexibility we need to manage our wastes the most efficiently. As a result, most American communities have adopted an integrated approach to solid waste management in which they attempt to balance recycling, composting and disposal. Source reduction is important, but the most effective waste reductions programs at the local level promote the use of mulching lawnmowers and backyard compost piles for yard waste. Aside from those programs, most households will most effectively reduce the amount of garbage by participating in recycling programs.

EIA is the trade association that represents the private sector solid waste and recycling industry through its two sub-associations, the National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) and the Waste Equipment Technology Association (WASTEC).