Solid Waste Trends in the United States
The United States is responsible for a significant proportion of the world's waste matter. The economic powerhouse is the world leader in the consumption of retail goods. Therefore, it is also the world leader in the production of solid waste there from. According to the module around which this discussion is centered, America's production of waste matter has accelerated at an alarming rate in the last half century, rising from 88.1 million tons in 1960 to 231.9 in 2000.
Two Contributing Factors:
One of the main contributing factors in the excessive production of solid waste is the staggering amount produced at the individual level. Evidence suggests that as a matter of habit, culture and lifestyle, Americans produce a tremendous amount of garbage at the individual level and are tremendously wasteful on the...
The module shows that in 1960, the average American produced roughly 1.2 kg of solid waste matter a day. As of 2000, this number was roughly 2kg per person, per day. One may presume that this number is yet greater a decade hence, based on the pace of acceleration. Thus, today, the average individual produces twice as much garbage in a day as did the average American in 1960.
A second contributing factor to the amassing of solid waste is the difficulty of finding ways to place all of this matter. By far, the highest proportion of items disposed of by Americans find their way to the landfill. And in doing so, most of this matter will never again be moved or recovered. All items that do end up in the landfill remain there in perpetuity, meaning that we are not only creating more waste every year than we did the previous year, but we are adding this to a…
