33 Trash and Recycling Statistics

Waste has always been an issue, but it's becoming an even bigger problem as the world's population continues to grow. Every year, we produce more and more waste, and it's taking a toll on our planet. Not only is it harming the environment, but it's also costing us money. The average person produces about 4.4 pounds of waste each day, and it costs about $50 per ton to dispose of that waste. That means that the average person is spending about $2 a day on waste disposal!

There are many ways to reduce the amount of waste we produce, and one of them is to think differently about our trash.

1. The average person produces about 4.4 pounds of waste each day.
2. It costs about $50 per ton to dispose of waste.
3. The average person spends about $2 a day on waste disposal.
4. Americans generate more than 200 million tons of garbage each year.
5. Approximately one-third of this garbage is recycled.
6. The recycling rate for paper products is 63 percent.
7. The recycling rate for glass is 26 percent.
8. The recycling rate for plastic is 9 percent
9. The recycling rate for aluminum is 55 percent.
10. It takes businesses five times as long to process recycled materials as it does to process garbage.
11. It costs businesses twice as much to process recycled materials as it does to process garbage.
12. The average person uses about seven trees worth of paper each year.
13. If every American recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25 million trees each year.
14. The average office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of paper each year.
15. It takes about 24 trees to make a ton of paper.
16. If every American recycled just half we would save more than 100 million trees each year.
17. Approximately 60 percent of the waste generated in the United States is recyclable, but only about 30 percent is actually recycled.
18. Recycling one ton of paper saves enough energy to power the average home for six months.
19. It takes about four gallons of water to produce one gallon of bottled water.
20. If everyone in the United States recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, we would save about 25 million trees each year.
21. Paper accounts for about 25 percent of landfill waste.
22. The average person generates about 65 pounds of paper waste each year.
23. If we recycled all the paper we use in the United States, we would save more than 850 million trees each year! It takes about 24 trees to make one ton of paper.
24. The average office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of paper each year.
25. Approximately 60 percent of the waste generated in the United States is recyclable, but only about 30 percent is actually recycled.
26. Recycling one ton of paper saves enough energy to power the average home for six months.
27. In 2010, Americans generated about 250 million tons of trash and recycled and composted about 96 million tons of this material.
28. This recycling and composting prevented the release of about 850 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent into the atmosphere.
29. This is equivalent to taking about 33 million cars off the road for one year. The United States recycled less than one-third of its waste in 2010.
30. Landfills are the third largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States.
31. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.
32. Landfills are the second largest source of human-related methane emissions in the world.
33. Approximately two-thirds of the waste generated in the of United States is disposed of in landfills.