EPA's Report on Municipal Waste

The following information was compiled from the EPA's Facts and Figures on Municipal Waste from 2005 (the most recent report available).

Plastic Waste Not Being Recycled

• Of all waste products, plastics were the least likely to be recycled in 2005
  
• Only 5.7% of all plastic waste was recycled in 2005
  
• Americans produced 28.9 million tons of plastic waste in 2005
  

More Garbage Per Person
Americans are producing significantly more trash each day than they did in the 1960's.

• In 2005, each person produced an average of 4.54 pounds of trash each day
• In 1960, each person produced an average of 2.68 pounds of trash each day

However, Americans now recycle a lot more. As a result of individual recycling efforts and composting and combusting programs, we actually sent less trash per person per day to landfills.

• In 2005, approximately 2.46 pounds of trash per person per day went to landfills
• In 1960, approximately 2.51 pounds of trash per person per day went to landfills
  

With these statistics in mind, the questions become:

• Do we produce more trash each day because we know that some of it will be recycled?
  
• Does that make it okay? Especially when you factor in population growth?
  
• What additional factors are causing us to produce so much more trash per person now than we did in the 1960's?
• What can we do to get back to 1960's levels of waste production?
  

Additional Information from the Report

The Bad News

• Americans produced a total of 254.7 million tons of garbage in 2005 (of the amount generate, 58.4 million tons were recycled; 20.6 million tons were composted; and 33.4 million tons were burned with energy recovered).
  
• 133.3 million tons of that garbage ended up in landfills

The Good News

• Americans produced less garbage in 2005 than in 2004, and sent 2.2 million tons less garbage to landfills.