Waste and Recyling

In 2010 our friends at the EPA estimated that Americans generated about 250 million tons of trash that year.

Paper and paperboard 29 %

Yard trimmings 13%

Food scraps 13 %

Plastics 12 %

Metals 9 %

Rubber, leather, and textiles 8 %

Wood 6 %

Glass 5 %

Other miscellaneous waste approximately 3 %

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Of this 250 million tons of trash,

85 million tons were recycled or composted.

That's 34% of trash recycled or composted.

The composition of that 85 million tons of recycled material was;

Paper and paperboard 53%

Yard trimmings 22% 

Food scraps 1%

Plastics 3%

Metals 9%

Rubber, leather, and textiles 3%

Wood 3%

Glass 4%

Other miscellaneous waste approximately 2% 

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But what does it mean???

We are wasteful, very wasteful.

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By composting all

Paper and paperboard

Yard trimmings 

Food scraps

55% or 137 million tons of trash is diverted from landfills and put in the hands of local communities.

Composting all paper and paperboard, yard trimmings and food scraps would bring the national amount of waste recycled to 157 million tons or 63%

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Other benefits of composting

-Reduce or eliminate the need for chemical fertilizers

-Promote higher yields of agricultural crops

-Cost-effectively remediate soils contaminated by hazardous waste

-Remove solids, oil, grease, and heavy metals from stormwater runoff

-Avoids Methane and leachate formulation in landfills

-Capture and destroy 99.6 percent of industrial volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in contaminated air

-Provide cost savings of at least 50 percent over conventional soil, water, and air pollution remediation technologies, where applicable

-Reduces the need for water, fertilizers, and pesticides

-Extends municipal landfill life by diverting organic materials from landfills

Sources