paper tiger on the lawn

According to the EPA, over the last 35 years Americans have nearly doubled their solid waste output from 2.7 pounds per person per day to 4.5 pounds per person per day. In 2005, US residents, businesses, and institutions produced more than 245 million tons of garbage. And better than 1/3 of it is paper. 

But not all the news is bad. Americans have also increased their recycling rates from 6.4% to 30%. Recycling grew every year until the early 90's, when it leveled off at around 30%. Today up to 50% of the paper and paperboard is recycled. That means "only" 41 million tons of paper goes into landfills every year. That is "merely" 49 million average 90 ft. trees. 

Garbage production has also leveled off on a per capita basis since 1990. Unfortunately there are ever increasing numbers of people and so the absolute amount keeps going up. Population growth since 1990 is responsible for at least 30 million extra tons of garbage.

And to stick with paper for a while longer. The average reader of a metropolitan newspaper uses three trees per year. Up to 200 million fresh trees per year go into reading material for the US and UK combined. That is a forested area the size of Delaware each and every year.

The next biggest category of solid waste is yard clippings; 13.1% of garbage to be precise. There is your favorite lawn again. It is hard to shake the feeling that the green lawn is the worst environmental disaster in the country. It depletes our water resources, uses up fertilizer and pesticides at a rate equivalent to food crops, causes more oil spills than the Exxon Valdez every year, and is responsible for 30 million tons of solid waste that is carted away.

Next time you pick up your newspaper from your front lawn, think about that.