National Waste Trends
How much waste do you produce each day? How about 4.4 lbs? That's the average amount of waste generated, per person, per day in the United States in 2001. In total, we produced some 229 million tons of waste in 2001 alone, of which Indiana contributed some 18 million tons. Sounds like a lot? Well, it is. And like Indiana state numbers, the national numbers have been steadily growing for the past several decades.
As the graph clearly indicates, solid waste generation has nearly tripled in the United States since 1960, increasing from 88.1 million tons to 229.2 million tons. What's the cause of this upward trend? Is it just a result of increased population? Not quite. As the black line indicates, our per capita waste generation has also increased, from 2.7 lbs/person/day to 4.5 lbs/person/day.
As alarming as these trends may be, the more interesting question is how have recycling trends changed during this same time period?
The graph above indicate that recycling rates have dramtically increased since the sixties. Indiana remains above average, recycling nearly 40% of our municipal solid waste in 2001, as compared the roughly 30% recycled by the nation at large.
At both the state and national levels, however, the problem is much the same: We may be recycling a higher percentage of the waste we produce, but we're sending more and more waste to the landfills each year.
Curious about Indiana trends? Click here.
