We all know that some people are more wasteful than others; some of us don’t recycle, we wrap presents in fresh rather than recycled paper or gift bags, some people buy products with lots of packaging – the list goes on. You might think that you’re a relatively eco-friendly citizen, but how much waste does the average person really produce? Let’s find out.
If we look at the statistics of the world’s waste, Canada ranks number one, meaning we are responsible for the largest portion of waste across the globe. While much of our total can be attributed to recycling measures, many people don’t recycle at all, and an even higher percentage of people don’t compost at all either. So, what does that mean for individual numbers?
- Daily coffee drinkers create 23 lbs of waste per year due to those disposable cups
- Every Canadian throws away roughly ½ kg of packaging every day, whether that’s from food, electronics, clothing, etc.
- The average Canadian tosses roughly 2.7 kg of garbage every day
While these numbers are just a handful of examples, Canada’s waste statistics are disheartening at best. If we look at some more general numbers for North America, the news isn’t much better. We throw away roughly:
- 38 pounds of newspapers
- 28 pounds of aluminum cans
- 77 pounds of cardboard boxes
- 48 pounds of books
- 77 pounds of plastic bottles
- 90 pounds of shoes and old clothes
- 25 lbs of office papers
And over 200 lbs of food waste. That seems like a lot, doesn’t it? But that doesn’t include waste we produce when we eat out at a restaurant, have a child, build a new home, and thousands of other activities. Since we produce so much waste every year, we need a reliable system for disposing of that waste. For all of your trash and recycling needs, get your bins here.
