Trash History
The modern dumpster was created by this construction contractor, and politician, in Knoxville in 1935.
Who is George Dempster?
Roughly 2,500,000 of these are used every hour in the United States, and usually become trash immediately after.
What are plastic bottles?
This is the number one most recycled item in the United States.
What are aluminum cans?
The modern aluminum can was created by this person/company in 1959 to replace the tin coated steel can used for their beer.
Who is Coors?
There are over 3,000 in the United States that are active.
What are landfills?
A natural process of turning organic waste like leaves and food scraps into a beneficial fertilizer that may benefit soil and plants.
What is composting?
in 1979, this agency banned open dumping.
What is the EPA?
An estimated 4.5 trillion of these are discarded every year. These tiny pieces of trash may seem harmless, but they are toxic.
What are cigarette butts?
Recycling of this material has increased by almost 90% since 2010.
What is paper?
One of the first garbage service programs in history started in this Mediterranean city in 500 BC.
What is Athens?
Approximately 350,000 of these are disposed of each day.
What are mobile phones?
This country was importing about 45% of America’s paper, plastics, and other recyclables before new restrictions were put into effect in 2018.
What is China?
These large farms that housed thousands of pigs that would eat raw garbage began popping up around the United States in 1900.
What are piggeries?
This floating island of garbage is located halfway between Hawaii and California, and is estimated to be about 620,000 square miles in size.
*That’s twice the size of Texas and three times the size of France.
What is The Great Pacific Garbage Patch?
This material is 100% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly without loss in quality or purity.
However, when trashed in a landfill, it takes more than 1 million years to break down.
What is glass?