Where Does Your Trash Go?
The place where your trash goes.
A landfill.
This country makes the most amount of trash per person.
The United States
This percentage of items buried in landfills can be recycled.
80%
Name an alternative to plastic wrap.
Beeswax wraps, reusable bowl covers (silicone), glass jars, and banana leaves.
True or false: Microplastics can be found in our water.
True.
Define the word "landfill."
A hole in the ground where trash is placed.
The US creates over ________ metric tons of waste per day.
600,000+
True or false: Almost all electronics can be recycled.
True
Glass, silicone, and fiber.
This major supplier of many goods emitted approximately 68.82 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2023.
Amazon.
The place where your recycling goes.
A recycling center OR a landfill.
In 2018, the NY statewide total waste stream was _____ tons.
42.2 million
Only this percentage of electronics makes it into landfills.
Only around 20%.
True or false: Buying items online lowers the amount of waste used.
False. Shipping supplies can cause lots of excess pollution compared to just buying an item in stores.
It takes this many years for plastic bags to break down.
10-20 years.
The year in which the US is on track to run out of room in landfills.
2036.
The US throws away as many as 35 billion plastic _________ each year, with only 25% that are recycled.
True or false: Around 66% of our energy could be saved by producing plastic products from recycled plastics instead of brand new materials.
True.
True or false: Organic matter breaks down easily in landfills.
False. Landfills that are anaerobic (lacking oxygen) make it very hard for organic matter to break down.
It takes up to this many years for Styrofoam to break down in landfills.
Up to 500 years.
An alternative to landfills is...
Recycling, composting, bioreactor landfills, and waste-to-energy facilities.
______ million metric tons of plastic trash winds up in our oceans each year.
8
True or false: We CANNOT lower the amount of waste we create by reusing or finding new uses for old items.
False. Reusing or finding new uses for old items is a great way to lower the amount of waste we create.
One way to keep items (not including food) out of landfills is to...
Reuse that item, donate that item, or use it until it breaks.
U.S. landfills released approximately 119.8 million metric tons of this gas into the atmosphere in 2022.
Methane.