When you first read the facts about the amount of trash Americans can produce in just one day, you will not only be astonished, but might be hesitant to believe the facts. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests that Americans generate trash at a rate of over four pounds per day, per person. This equates to 600,000 tons of trash per day and 251 million tons per year. But you don’t have to take their word for it. You can test it yourself.

Most Americans often just throw things in the garbage without even thinking about where it will go next, how long it will be there, or better yet, how they can reuse it in their homes or recycle it properly. Below is an example of what an average person might accumulate during a 24-hour period. This is a huge eye opener for many people because not many of us would ever put this to the test and collect (or weigh) our garbage during a specific timeframe. This list is a harsh realization of just how much we trash every day, especially since this is a bare minimum list for just one person.

Breakfast:

Two egg shells

Empty milk carton

Old grounds of coffee and the filter

Paper towel

Getting cleaned-up and dressed for the day:

Q-tips

Empty stick of deodorant

Tag from a new shirt

Lint sheet stuck inside a pair of jeans from the last load of laundry

A sock with a hole in the toe and heel

Lunch:

Baggie containing sandwich

Peel from clementine

Empty container of a to-go pack of hummus (or some other snack)

Second baggie containing carrot sticks (or some other healthy side)

Paper towel

A bag to carry it all

Work:

Three water bottles

12 pieces of printing paper

Pen (out of ink)

Several post-it notes

Dinner:

Scraps from cutting meats and vegetables

Packaging from meats

Leftover scraps from uneaten food

Paper towel

Miscellaneous:

Box and packaging from a FedEx delivery

Empty cookie package (late night snack and a guilty pleasure)

Junk mail

An electronics component that is no longer working

If you were to collect all this (instead of throwing it in the normal waste) and weight it out, you’ll find that it fits in with the average American trash statistics perfectly. This particular example would weigh in at a whopping 3 lbs. and 9 oz

While a lot of Americans have a separate garbage bin for what they believe to be “recyclables” and are diligent at splitting things up, there is much more everyone can do to reuse or recycle our daily trash. Based on the previous list of garbage, here are a few recommendations anyone can begin implementing into their daily lives immediately.

• Start using a compost bin for food scraps and old coffee grounds. Keep it in the garage or on the deck.
• Purchase reusable sandwich/snack baggies and/or construct a “baggie dryer” out of a wooden base and wooden dowel, so you can rinse and re-use those baggies.
• Purchase a reusable water bottle to carry around with you to eliminate plastic water bottles.
• Purchase reusable lunch bags and reusable grocery bags to minimize the number of plastic grocery bags you are bringing home from the store.
• Try to be more conscious of reusing empty boxes or empty plastic containers for miscellaneous things around the house. You can also offer them to friends, family, and neighbors whenever they need some extra storage options.

If you feel like you are spending additional money to purchase reusable items in the beginning, don’t worry, it will pay off in the long run (for both your wallet and the environment). Buy what you can when your budget allows it and, before you know it, reusable will be your new nickname.

An additional major change anyone can make is to try recycling that pesky holey sock, or those ripped jeans, or that stained shirt. Most Americans don’t think much about recycling clothing that has holes and stains, because, well, who would want to buy and/or wear someone else’s holey, ripped or stained clothing?

It is estimated that textile waste occupies nearly 5% of all landfill space, and the average US citizen throws away 70 pounds of clothing or textiles each year. Only 15% of all textiles are recycled, leaving 85% in the landfills, equaling 21 billion pounds of post-consumer textile waste per year.

Because of these statistics, simply donating old, stained clothing, or ripped jeans to the thrift shop will do amazing things for our economy and the environment, even if they are not purchased by another consumer. Thrift shops and charities only sell 10-20% of the textiles that are donated to them for consumer reuse, while 80% is resold to secondhand clothing recyclers. This generates significant revenue for the thrift shops or charities.

The secondhand clothing recyclers sort and separate the textiles into the following three categories, so that when they’re done only 5% ends up in landfills.

• Reused and Repurposed: 45%
• Recycled and Converted: 30%
• Recycled into Fiber: 20%

Incorporating these minor and major recycling changes into our trashy lives, including those bits of clothing and textiles, can greatly benefit the environment by conserving natural resources, minimizing energy consumption, reducing carbon dioxide and other emissions, and keeping products out of landfills. Turn your trashy life into a reusable life.