What Makes Up Our Waste Stream?
To know what makes up our waste is to better understand the nature of the problem and its root causes, and better prepare us to find more applicable solutions. For the past 30 years or so, the EPA has collected an incredible amount of data about the generation and disposal of our nation’s waste, so it’s easy to see what exactly is being thrown out.
Americans produced about 251 million tons of trash in 2006. This total includes all the trash generated by residents, businesses, and institutions. So what’s included in this tally? Our trash—or, technically, our Municipal Solid Waste—is made up of all that stuff we commonly use and then throw away. This could include anything from packaging, food scraps and clothes to furniture, computers, tires, or even refrigerators. Not included in this tally are industrial wastes, hazardous waste, or waste from the construction industry.
Of all this waste, an estimated 55% to 65% is generated residentially, in individual homes, apartments, condos, housing projects, and so on. The other 35% to 45% percent comes from institutions and commercial sources, like schools, businesses, hospitals, and government agencies.
So what makes up the waste? Interestingly, nearly 65% of total Municipal Solid Waste generated is made of organic materials, including paper and paperboard (like cardboard) products, yard trimmings, food scraps, and wood. Paper and paperboard alone make up over one-third of the American waste stream, with yard trimmings and food scraps running a distant second and third place at around 12% to 13% percent each. Plastics account for 11.7% of American waste, and the list is rounded off—in order—by metals (7.6%), rubber, leather and textiles (7.3%), wood (5.5%), glass (5.3%), and that ever-mysterious category of “other,” which totals about 3.3% of the nation’s waste.
The encouraging bit here is that significant amounts of material from each category are already diverted from landfills or incinerators, and the largest components of the waste stream—paper, food, and yard trimmings—are all easily recovered through recycling or composting.
Another interesting way to look at our waste is by its category of use, rather than by the specific materials that it is made of. Revealingly, containers and packaging materials account for the lion’s share of American waste, representing nearly one-third of what we throw away. Non-durable goods—defined as stuff that generally lasts less than three years—is another category that includes most non-packaging paper materials (like newspapers, magazines and office paper), as well as clothing and other textile products. These non-durable goods make up another quarter or so of Municipal Solid Waste. Durable goods—or the longer-lasting stuff we get inside of all that packaging—represent another 16%.
