Garbage and Landfills
By Jared Wolt

We create WAY TOO
MUCH garbage
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average American* produces
about 4.4 pounds of garbage a day, or a total of 29 pounds (13 kg) per week and 1,600
pounds (726 kg) a year.
With the garbage produced in America alone, you could:
• Form a line of filled‐up garbage trucks and reach the moon
• Or cover the state of Texas two and a half times
• Or bury more than 990,000 football fields under six‐foot high (1.8 meter high) piles
of waste.
• According to WM Recycle America, LLC, Americans alone throw away enough
aluminum to duplicate the full commercial air fleet of the US.
(*In Mexico, the average household produces 30 percent more garbage than in America)
Most of the stuff that fills the landfills is packaging, especially in the form of fast‐food
containers ‐ but office paper, disposable diapers, Styrofoam inserts, and plain plastic bags
also contribute an important percentage to the total waste production of the country.
Source: http://www.wisegeek.com/how‐much‐garbage‐does‐a‐person‐create‐in‐one‐year.htm

Burning OUR
garbage
often puts
dangerous
chemicals in
the air and
adds to global
warming

Photo credit: www.boston.com
In landfills, grass won’t grow anymore and dangerous
chemicals go can go into the ground

EVERYDAY things cause many problems for our planet
Leather shoes take 40 years to decompose
Plastic bags take
1,000 years to
decompose
Photo source: REUTERS/Rafiqur Rahman
Photo source:
www.worldproutassembly.org
Plastic bottles NEVER, EVER decompose

WE CAN
Reducing Global Warming
by Recycling ...
Photo credits: www.egtrashrecycleservices.org
MUST EDUCATE ourselves
We

http://www.ohiou.edu/news/months/MARCH2000/135.HTML
WE CAN
volunteer to benefit OUR community

WE CAN Be Responsible

YES
WE
CAN!
Photo source: www.nrc-recycle.org/americarecycles.aspx
to Recycle, Reuse and Reduce

Now that
YOU KNOW
what will
YOU DO?
A presentation by Jared Wolt