Per capita waste generation

If that last post wasn't enough, and you want to get really depressed about waste generation, you could start reading EPA reports on municipal solid waste generation and recycling.

Here's a tiny tidbit: despite steady improvements in recent decades, in 2007, the net per capita discard rate after materials recovery and combustion with energy recovery was 2.50 pounds per person per day.

Think about this: roughly, go take a good quality 10" skillet, or a pair of hiking boots (okay, I have big feet), or a one liter bottle of water or soda, package it up, and mail it to yourself for $4.95 (USPS priority mail; since you're mailing it to yourself, calculate it from your zip code to your zip code.) NOW DO THIS EVERY FUCKING DAY. That is the amount of trash YOU AND I generated per capita AFTER RECYCLING and energy recovery is factored in.

Perhaps I need to go back to pictures of container gardening and lay off the harping for a while...