Trash time
January 17th, 2008 | by Paul |It’s time to talk about garbage. Why not? If you’re an average American, you produced about 4.6 pounds of it today.
To be fair, that 4.6 pounds (which, technically, was a statistic from 2006), is before some of that trash was recovered to be recycled, composted or combusted for energy. Only about 2.53 pounds per person per day goes to a landfill.
Recycling, composting and combustion weren’t so common in the past. In 1960, an average zero pounds per person per day were combusted, 0.17 were recycled and the amount composted was so negligible, the EPA didn’t even bother to put it in the report. Darn those people in 1960! We’re so much better with them with our blue bins and computer drop-offs.
Yeah. So we’re putting 2.53 pounds of garbage per person per day into the landfills. In 1960, they were putting … wait for it … 2.51 pounds of garbage in the landfills per person per day.
How? We’re recycling. We’re composting. We have that lady from Sex and the City picking up trash on the beach. How are we putting more garbage in landfills than those slobs in the Eisenhower era? (Don’t correct me. 1960 was an election year. Kennedy didn’t take office until 1961.)
Here’s how: They were throwing away less. In 2006, the average American produced 4.6 pounds of garbage each day. In 1960, that American, albeit with a different haircut, was producing 2.68 pounds per day.
Recovery recycling, combustion and composting just can’t keep up with our personal consumption.