Guide Note

Sanitation services collect and dispose of waste materials. Waste materials can include municipal solid waste, organic waste, discarded car tires or many forms of industrial waste.

Fast Facts

1. In 2006 Americans generated 4.6 pounds of garbage per person per day¹
2. Newspapers accounted for 4.9% of all trash in 2005 down from 8.1% in 1960²
3. 82 Million tons of trash were recycled in 2006¹
4. The EPA claims 75% of what Americans throw away could actually be recycled ³
5. It takes over 1 million years for a styrofoam container to decompose⁴

The most common method of municipal solid waste disposal is dumping it into a landfill. It is also common for solid waste to be incinerated. The heat released during incineration is often used to generate electricity. The ashes leftover from the incineration take up much less space than the initial amount of garbage and are disposed of in a landfill.

Plastics pose a challenge to the sustainability of modern sanitation. Only 3% of plastic waste is recycled, and the rest accounts for up to a quarter of all landfill space. ⁵ New research into "bio-plastics"—plastics based on vegetable matter rather than petroleum—may provide an solution. These new plastics can biodegrade in a matter of weeks or months, as opposed to standard plastics that can take centuries to break down.⁶