You won’t believe this…
from Municipal Solid Waste Generation,Recycling, and Disposal in the United States:Facts and Figures for 2006
The data recently reported by the US Environmental Protection Agency shows, for only the second time, an actual decline in the per capita municipal solid waste generated in the United States. With that came an all-time high rate of recycling - 32.5%, which means that of the 4.6 lbs per person per day of solid waste that we create, only about 3.1 lbs of it went to the landfill. It seems like we could do better.
What makes up the municipal solid waste (the stuff that goes to the landfill)?
from Municipal Solid Waste Generation,Recycling, and Disposal in the United States:Facts and Figures for 2006
The good news is that the largest piece of the pie is the group with the highest percentage of recycling. This means that our efforts at controlling waste are getting at the problem. About 40 percent of all the containers and packaging waste generated was recycled. Steel, paper products, and aluminum were the most recycled materials by percentage in this category. More than 63 percent of steel packaging (mostly cans) was recycled. Fifty-nine percent of paper and paperboard containers and packaging was recycled, including 72 percent of all corrugated boxes. The aluminum recycling rate was 36 percent, including 45 percent of all aluminum beverage cans. The rate for plastics recycling was only 10.6%.