Four Winds Nature Institute
4 Casey Rd. Chittenden, VT 05737
802-353-9440 www.fourwindsinstitute.org
Ecosystems – WASTE NOT – Background Supplement
CONSIDERING TRASH…
Where does trash go when it is thrown away? Actually, trash or garbage is a major form of
environmental pollutant, with many types taking hundreds of years to properly decompose when
thrown away. The truth about trash is troubling, but there are ways to curb and resolve our
wasteful ways.
10 TRASH TROUBLES & SOLUTIONS
1. On average, American’s throw away about 3.5 pounds of trash each day, that comes to over 12
hundred pounds per year!
Solutions: REDUCE, REUSE, and RECYCLE
Think before buying. Use cloth napkins, dishtowels, rags and grocery bags instead of paper and
plastic. Shop at second hand stores for clothing, furniture, tools, and books.
2. Between Thanksgiving and the New Year, Americans throw away up to 25% more trash,
amounting to a massive five million tons extra. Of this, about four millions tons is believed to be
made up of wrapping paper and shopping bags.
Solutions: Cut down on wrapping paper by reusing gift bags or buying recycled gift wrap; wrap
gifts in a reusable bag or scarf as part of the gift. Take reusable shopping bags with you when
gift shopping.
3. At least one third of all garbage thrown away by Americans is packaging. Most packaging
takes years and years or may never fully decompose.
Solutions: Make the effort to cut down on the amount of packaging and bags you use, buy items
in bulk, fill reusable containers. Consider the packaging when choosing items for purchase – do
you really need to put fruits and vegetables in plastic bags?
4. Different types of rubbish take varying amounts of time to properly decompose. Top of the
offenders are Styrofoam and plastic containers, which take one million years to fully decompose.
A “disposable” diaper takes 550 years and an aluminum can takes between 200-500 years. At the
other end of the scale, a wool sock takes one year and a paper bag one month to decompose.
Solutions: Avoid Styrofoam and plastic containers and other non-natural “disposable” products
whenever possible. Be selective – reuse and choose recyclable and biodegradable materials
whenever possible.
5. Estimates suggest that the average American office worker uses up to 500 disposable coffee
cups each year and that Americans use up to 2,500,000 plastic beverage bottles every hour, and
go through about 100 billion plastic bags a year or 360 bags per year for every man, woman and
child in the country.
Solutions: Keep a durable, reusable coffee mug at the job; carry a reusable bottle filled with tap
water or beverages purchased in larger containers; carry reusable bags for shopping; rinse and
reuse plastic bags.
6. An estimated 21.5 million tons of food waste is generated annually, a high percentage of
which goes to landfills.
Solution: Composting food waste instead of sending it to landfills reduces greenhouse gas
emissions. Use of mature compost contributes to plant health, attracts beneficial decomposers,
and can control plant diseases.
7. Unwanted junk mail is frequently thrown away and up to 44% is ditched without even being
opened. An estimated 100 million trees are ground up each year for unsolicited mail and 28
billion gallons of water are used annually to process the paper.
Solutions: Get off junk mail lists by sending a letter, postcard, or email or make a phone call to
the source or register on the direct mail do not mail list:
www.directmail.com/directory/mail_preference/
8. We use more than 67 million tons of paper each year – which works out as about 580 pounds
per person.
Solutions: Reduce the amount of paper used, use both sides of paper before discarding and
recycle as much as possible, purchase only recycled paper.
9. A large amount of garbage is either incinerated or buried in landfills. Only about a quarter of
trash is currently recycled.
Solution: If we are more careful and spend time sorting and separating different types of
materials, we can significantly increase recycling percentages. Recycling an aluminum can saves
95% of the energy required to make the same amount of aluminum from virgin materials. If all
our newspaper was recycled we could save about 250,000,000 trees per year.
10. Hundreds of millions of computers and other electronic devices become obsolete and are
discarded each year generating tons of plastic and toxic metal waste.
Solutions: Resell or upgrade computers rather than discarding. Take obsolete or unusable
electronics to a place that transfers them to an electronics recycling facility.
Suggested Reading:
Royte, Elizabeth. Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash. New York: Little, Brown and
Company, 2005.
http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/recycle.htm
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