Owen Rosi

The average person throws away almost three pounds of trash every day, that is a lot of

trash! Every single person, including you, is contributing to bigger landfills filled with municipal

waste that you threw in the garbage. Many organizations, including the EPA, are working to

reduce the amount of municipal waste we produce and to increase the use of recycling around

the world. You (and I) need to be more resourceful in how much we throw away because [our]

municipal waste fills up landfills which impact the environment in a negative way.

Firstly, we need to be more aware of what our waste does to the environment.

Toxicsaction.org

created a graph to

show how much

pounds of municipal

waste are thrown

out a day by a

single person for

each generation,

and the information

is quite shocking.

The amount of municipal waste, a.k.a. trash, that we throw out a day today has nearly doubled

the amount of the 1960s. So what does all this mean? you ask. Basically, we are throwing

away a lot more trash than we used to. The landfills are increasing, causing pollution to the

[local] environment by contaminating the groundwater and aquifers, contaminating the soil, and

producing methane. The graph shows a regression (r squared) equation of 0.9468, which

means that the linear model is a good fit for the regression. In other words, the data points on

the graph are very close to the black (linear) line that is in a constant upward direction. The

amount of waste that we are producing is growing steadily higher.

 Owen Rosi

Secondly, people need to make a change so that we can reduce the amount of

municipal waste in landfills. If you look at the graph, you can see that the amount of waste is

steadily going upwards to 1990, and then jumps higher going into the 21st century. If we

continue to go down this path, I predict that between the years 2010 and and 2020, the amount

of waste will increase by at least a pound. That will make our daily municipal waste increase to

up to 5 pounds! We the people, need to make a change and decrease the amount of trash we

discard. However, there are organizations that have started this mission (EPA), who have set

the stage for us to follow. For example: recycle paper, cardboard, etc. because it can be

composted and reused again, instead of taking up space in landfills.

To conclude, people need to be more resourceful in how much we throw away because

our municipal waste is polluting the environment. We need to be more aware as to where our

trash goes and how it impacts the environment. Statistics show that people throw away nearly

four pounds of trash every single day, contributing to 220 million tons of waste each year. EPA

(and other companies) have helped maintain the amount of waste by increasing the use of

recycling.

Cite Sources
 Owen Rosi

"Center for Sustainability & Commerce." How Much Do We Waste Daily?N.p., n.d. Web. 29

Sept. 2014. <http://center.sustainability.duke.edu/resources/green-facts-consumers/how-much-

do-we-waste-daily>.

Frost, Jim. "Regression Analysis: How Do I Interpret R-squared and Assess the Goodness-of-

Fit? | Minitab." Regression Analysis: How Do I Interpret R-squared and Assess the Goodness-

of-Fit? N.p., 30 May 2013. Web. 01 Oct. 2014. <http://blog.minitab.com/blog/adventures-in-

statistics/regression-analysis-how-do-i-interpret-r-squared-and-assess-the-goodness-of-fit>.

Amysweb. "Landfills And The Environmental Effects :: Live Life Green." Live Life Green. N.p., 6

Aug. 2009. Web. 01 Oct. 2014. <http://livelifegreen.com/landfills-and-th-environmental-effects/>.