Thanks to everyone for your helpful responses!!
-----Original Message-----
From: Brenda Platt [mailto:bplatt@ilsr.org]
Sent: Wednesday, August 23, 2000 9:04 AM
To: multiple recipients of
Subject: [GRRN] revise recycling question
Brian and Terri,
The U.S. EPA's Characterization of Municipal Solid Waste in the United
States report may be your best source of data. You can download the PDF
file at: http://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/non-hw/muncpl/msw99.htm
Brian, as you probably know, national data don't necessarily apply to
local situations. If you want to find out how much recyclable material
is in your waste stream and no local waste generation and composition
studies have been done, you might see if any state data exists. Or
perhaps some neighboring counties with similar socio-economics and
demographics have some data. Often such data don't exist, so national
data will be your best bet. If so, you could estimate local recyclable
material in the waste stream two ways: (1) use national percentage
breakdown by weight data and apply figures to your local tonnage MSW
data, and/or (2) convert national tonnage data into per capita figures
by material and then apply these per capita rates to your local
population base. It would be interesting to see how your results differ
when using these two methodologies.
Terri, according to the 1998 Update of the characterization study, in
1997, the U.S. generated 4.44 pounds per day of municipal solid waste.
Of this, 1.24 was recycled and composted and 3.2 was landfilled or
incinerated or otherwise disposed. See Table B-1, page 141.
Brenda
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Brenda A. Platt
Institute for Local Self-Reliance
Web: <http://www.ilsr.org>
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