Introduction to GARBAGE! Mrs. Trimble Mrs. Perryman

To waste, to destroy, our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified. — Theodore Roosevelt – 26th President of the United States of America

Can you make the matches? America’s waste industry successfully manages ______million tons of household and other municipal solid waste annually ,

Can you make the matches? The average American discards _____ pounds of garbage every day EPA Facts and Figures ,

Can you make the matches? Construction waste, demolition waste and non-hazardous industrial waste creates _____ million tons of solid waste each year (“Size of the United States Solid Waste Industry,” R.W. Beck, Inc. 2001) ,

Can you make the matches? The total volume of solid waste produced in the U.S. each year is equal to the weight of more than _____ space shuttles, or 2.3 million Boeing 747 jumbo jets (Beck) ,

Can you make the matches? If we put all of the solid waste collected in the U.S. in a line of average garbage trucks, that line of trucks could cross the country, extending from New York City to Los Angeles, more than ____ times (Beck) ,

How did you do? America’s waste industry successfully manages 243 million tons of household and other municipal solid waste annually EPA Facts and Figures The average American discards 4.34 pounds of garbage every day EPA Facts and Figures Construction waste, demolition waste and non-hazardous industrial waste creates 302 million tons of solid waste each year (“Size of the United States Solid Waste Industry,” R.W. Beck, Inc. 2001). The total volume of solid waste produced in the U.S. each year is equal to the weight of more than 247,000 space shuttles, or 2.3 million Boeing 747 jumbo jets (Beck). If we put all of the solid waste collected in the U.S. in a line of average garbage trucks, that line of trucks could cross the country, extending from New York City to Los Angeles, more than 100 times (Beck).

Oh wait; This is a lecture for another day!

Is this a lot? How does the US compare? First- make a guess- where do you think the US ranks in terms of the amount of garbage created by the average person per year?

Types of Waste Municipal Solid Waste Commercial Waste Hazardous Waste E- Waste Agricultural Waste

The purpose of this unit Types of waste How we deal with waste Solutions to waste production New Technologies Future Technologies