The EPA recently released it’s annual municipal solid waste and recycling report for 2010. Congratulations America. We generated 2.5% more waste in 2010 than in 2009.
Does 2.5% not sound like a big number? Think again. Starting from 243.7 million tons (that’s 487 billion pounds) in ’09, that’s another 6.2 million tons (or 12 billion pounds) of waste in ’10. Here’s my reaction when reading the report.
Report: Americans are now generating 4.43 pounds per person per day. But don’t worry. Only 54% of that is going to landfills. 34% is recycled or composted and another 12% is combusted for energy.
Reaction: What if I gained 4.43 pounds per day in body weight, but then lost 46% of it before I stepped on the scale? Would I be happy about losing 2 of the 4.43 pounds I gained even though I was going to gain another 2.43 pounds the next day? Umm… no.
Report: Well, at least the overall recycling/composting rate of Americans continues to climb to a U.S. record of 34%.
Reaction: So basically people don’t give a shit 66% of the time. Actually, wait. I can’t blame ourselves as consumers for this whole mess. Manufacturers need to take some producer responsibility. And trash haulers, material recovery facilities and municipalities have to take responsibility somewhere in this blame game as well.
Report: But we’re now recycling 49.6% of all aluminum beverage cans.
Reaction: Jesus. That’s the easiest thing to recycle ever. Yet people throw away more of them than they recycle. That’s pathetic.
Report: Well, the recycling rate of plastic bottles has improved to 21%.
Reaction: That’s the 2nd easiest thing to recycle ever. Pathetic.
Report: Composting has actually declined. We’re composting less now than we did even 2 years ago to the tune of 1.9 million tons less.
Reaction: Ouch. That decline is 2x as much as the entire City of San Francisco recently announced they have composted in 15 years. How is the country’s composting decline possible now that there are compost facilities popping up all over and several cities have mandated organics waste collection programs?
Report: The are 137 fewer community composting programs in 2010 than there were in 2002.
Reaction: Oh, I guess that’s how.
I don’t mean to be a Debbie Downer, but it’s pretty pathetic how much waste we generate and how little of it we recover. I’m as much to blame as the next person. I’ll be throwing away well more than 4.43 pounds of waste on Christmas morning. Excuse me while I throw up.
