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Recycling - Solid Waste |
| Background Information Solid waste is any unwanted or discarded material that is not a liquid or a gas. This includes yesterdayâs newspaper and junk mail, todayâs table scraps, raked leaves and grass clippings, nonreturnable bottles and cans, worn-out appliances and furniture, abandoned cars, animal manure, crop residues, food-processing wastes, sewage sludge, fly ash, mining and industrial wastes and an array of other cast-off materials. The amount of solid waste from all sources produced in the United States is staggering - estimated to be at least 5.1 billion tons. This amounts to an average of 21 tons a year per capita, or 115 pounds a day. About 89% of this solid waste is produced as a result of agricultural and mining activities. Fortunately, over 90% of agricultural solid waste is recycled into the soil by being plowed under or used as a fertilizer (manure and other crop residues). Industrial solid waste makes up about 8% of the total produced each year. Much of this is scrap metal, plastics, slag, paper, fly ash from electrical power plants and sludge from sewage treatment plants. |
The amount of solid waste from all sources produced in the United States is estimated to be at least 5.1 billion tons
Solid municipal waste produced by homes and businesses in or near urban areas makes oup the remaining 3% of the solid waste produced in the United States. Each American produced an average of about 4 pounds of garbage per day or 1,4 60 pounds per year. The typical American garbage consists of : 40% paper, 17% food, 13% yard waste, and the remaining 30% is glass, plastics, metals wood and other wastes. |
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