Americans produce about 251 million tons of garbage per year, or an average of 4.5 lbs of trash per person daily. Much of this waste consists of paper, yard trimmings, and food scraps. To reduce waste, Americans are encouraged to follow the three R's - reduce, reuse, and recycle. Reduce means decreasing the amount of waste produced through actions like printing on both sides of paper. Reuse involves finding new uses for items rather than throwing them out, such as donating unused clothes. Recycling recovers materials like paper and glass for manufacturing new products, and Americans currently recycle about 30% of discarded materials.

1. Reduce, Reuse,
Recycle
By: Heather Lewis, Meredith Karam, and Nicole Wright

2. Objectives
1)
2)
3)
4)

3. What is Trash?
Also called solid waste, rubbish, refuse, and
garbage.
The solid materials that we no longer need or
want.
Trash is the common name for municipal
solid waste - the stuff that garbage collectors
pick up and take to landfills. In most cases,
trash has more volume than it does weight.
This means that it is relatively light but takes
up large amounts of space.

4. How Much Trash Do We Produce?
According to an EPA 2008 estimate,
Americans create roughly 251 million
tons of garbage per year.
On Average, each American generates
4.5 lbs of trash a day.
Every year, Americans throw away enough paper and plastic cups, forks,
and spoons to circle the equator 300 times.
Most of the trash consists of paper, yard trimmings, and food scraps.
Every year, Americans use approximately 1 billion shopping bags, creating
300,000 tons of landfill waste.

5. How Much Trash Do We Produce?

6. Reduce, Reuse,
Recycle
Reduce: Resource reduction or waste prevention
means decreasing the amount of waste that is
produced. Ex- printing on both sides of paper,
choosing reusable containers, etc.
Reuse: Reusing items in a similar or new
application, instead of tossing them in the trash.
Ex- Repairing a broken toy, donating clothes, etc.
Recycle: Recovering materials like paper and glass
for remanufacture into new products or containers.
Americans recycle nearly 30% of their discards.

7. References
http://www.cleanair.org/Waste/
wasteFacts.html#_edn1
http://www.epa.gov/osw/nonhaz/municipal/
pubs/msw2008rpt.pdf
Project Learning Tree: Environmental
Education Activity Guide, Pre K-8. American
Forest Foundation