Where does all this trash end up?
Where does all this trash end up?
- Wed, Mar 25 2026 at 10:35 AM
Mark M,
Imagine throwing away every single item in an apartment.
Now imagine every person in America doing that every single year.
That's how much trash we throw away annually: 265.3 million metric tons, about 1,788 pounds per person, the rough equivalent of every single item in a studio apartment.1
In our newly updated report "Trash in America," we wanted to find out where all that trash was going. Our biggest takeaway? We have a massive trash problem. And it's time to fix it.
More than 28% of America's garbage is made up of packaging, material designed to be thrown away as soon as the product is opened.
We also throw away around 133 billion pounds of food every year, which makes up one-fifth of our garbage. If all of America's wasted food came from a single farm, that farm would be the size of California and New York State combined.
Another major chunk of our trash is e-waste. Personal devices alone, like laptops and phones, make up about 5 million tons of waste every year.
Unfortunately, the majority of our trash -- around 62% -- heads straight to a landfill or incinerator. Only about 24% is recycled, and only 9% is composted.
All that trash takes a serious toll on our planet.
Trash incinerators pollute our air with heavy metals and other cancer-causing pollution like dioxin, one of the most toxic substances we know of. Contaminants can leach out of landfills and threaten our drinking water. And all of these processes pump greenhouse gases into our environment, contributing to the warming of our planet.
But it doesn't have to be this way. We know there are solutions that really do work to cut down on the tide of trash entering our landfills and incinerators, from ditching single-use plastics and encouraging companies to reduce packaging, to making sure our electronics are built to last.
But to tackle our truly massive waste problem, we have to work together to make those solutions a reality.
Thank you for being part of that work,
The team at Environment America Research & Policy Center
1. James Horrox and Celeste Meiffren-Swango, "Trash in America," Environment America Research & Policy Center, December 9, 2025.
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