Moving from destructive consumption toward a zero-waste system
More than 28% of all U.S. garbage consists of packaging, which is generally designed to be thrown away once the product it contains is used. Less than half of all plastic packaging on the U.S. market is recyclable, and only a tiny fraction of that actually gets recycled.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, America throws away approximately 133 billion pounds of wasted food each year. That accounts for more than one-fifth of our garbage. By one estimate, if all of the food wasted each year in the U.S. came from a single farm, that farm would be roughly the size of California and New York state combined.
E-waste: America throws away more than 7 million metric tons of discarded electronics every year — around 47 pounds per person. Personal devices alone, like laptops and phones, account for about 5 million tons of that waste.
