How much garbage do humans make a year?

Amount of Garbage That Humans Make Annually

The Environmental Protection Agency reports the United States produces approximately 220 million tons of garbage each year. This is equivalent to burying more than 82,000 football fields six feet deep in compacted garbage. There are no statistics readily available for the entire planet, but considering the United States makes up about 4% of the world's population, this is a LOT. I would personally estimate the entire planet's yearly production of garbage to be somewhere in the vicinity of 4 to 5 BILLION tons.

Here are more opinions and answers from others:

• Enough to cover Texas twice. This also fills enough trucks to form a line to the moon.

• Each American makes about 4 pounds of garbage daily. If the rest of the world produced as much as Americans, there would be about 10 MILLION tons daily, or 4 TRILLION tons yearly.

• I have an educational video that I show my students that states on average Americans generate 4.3 pounds of trash per day. Do the math: 4.3 X 365 = 1569.5 pounds per person per year. 285 million people in the US = 447307.5 Million pounds of trash. I am not confident of the final answer since I believe the figure was consumer trash production on average and did not account for industrial waste, but it is a start.

We throw away about 1825 pounds of trash!
Approximately

First answer by Nexix. Last edit by Zoey91102. Contributor trust: 2 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 58 [recommend question]