The average person generates 4.3 pounds of waste per day. This is 1.6 pounds more than most produced back in 1960. Where does it all go? Approximately 55% of 220 million tons of waste generated each year in the United States ends up in one of the over 3,500 landfills. The average American throws away 4.5 pounds of trash a day. 

To give you an idea of how much trash we generate here in the United States, imagine a hole the size of a football field, including the end zones. If we bury all of the trash we produce in just one year, that hole would be 100 miles deep.