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Track Your Trash

The Challenges

  • Curbside trash pickup makes it easy to lose track of how much you're throwing away. It's an "out of sight, out of mind" issue.

  • The total tonage of waste generated in the U.S. has tripled since 1960. The largest increases have been in paper & paperboard, food, plastics, and wood.

  • In 2018, about 146.1 million tons of MSW (municipal solid waste) were landfilled. Food was the largest component at about 24 percent. Plastics accounted for over 18 percent, paper and paperboard made up about 12 percent, and rubber, leather and textiles comprised over 11 percent. Other materials accounted for less than 10 percent each.

The Solutions

  1. For a specified time period of your choice (a week, a month, a year), keep a running list of every item you throw into the trash. EVERYTHING. Every napkin, plastic wrapper, and pull tab.

  2. Review the list at least once a week and see what items are showing up repeatedly.

  3. Reseach ways you can reduce those numbers, for example replacing what you're throwing away with something you can reuse.

Resources

EPA Facts & Figures on waste

Audrey's 1 year trash journal



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