Staggering Statistic: The Insane Amount of Garbage We Create

For most people, taking out the trash doesn’t provoke a lot of deep thought. Usually, the extent of contemplation the garbage can gets is, “How did it get so smelly in here?!”

But perhaps the amount of waste we throw away deserves a bit more thought. After all, it’s no small amount.

In 2009, Americans produced enough trash to circle the earth 24 times, according to Keep America Beautiful. In the same year, we filled U.S. landfills with the equivalent of the weight of 88 million cars.

Now if that’s not enough reason for you to start recycling and composting, we don’t know what is.