The quick answer
- About 4.9 pounds of trash per person each day in the U.S., according to the EPA’s most recent national figures, which cover 2018.
- That works out to about 34 pounds a week and roughly 1,790 pounds a year, close to nine-tenths of a ton for every person in the country.
- It is not just your kitchen bin. The EPA figure spreads trash from homes, stores, restaurants, schools, offices and hospitals across the whole population.
- About half of it is landfilled. In 2018 that was around 2.4 pounds per person per day; the rest was recycled, composted, burned for energy or handled through other food waste routes.
Per day, per week, per year
The EPA tracks what it calls municipal solid waste (MSW), the everyday trash people and businesses throw out. Its latest Facts and Figures data put 2018 MSW at 292.4 million tons, which equals 4.9 pounds for each person each day. The more precise figure in EPA’s 2018 fact sheet is 4.91 pounds.
Spread over longer stretches, using that 2018 rate (our arithmetic, rounded):
- Per day: about 4.9 pounds
- Per week: about 34 pounds
- Per month: about 150 pounds
- Per year: about 1,790 pounds, or roughly 0.9 short tons
- Over 70 years at the same rate: about 125,000 pounds, or roughly 63 tons
The lifetime number is only an illustration. The real rate has changed over the decades and will keep changing, and nobody’s personal trash matches the national average exactly.
What the number includes
The EPA describes MSW as the items consumers throw away after use: packaging, food, grass clippings, furniture, electronics, tires, appliances and the like. It comes from homes and also from businesses and institutions such as restaurants, grocery stores, schools, hospitals and the office and cafeteria side of factories.
That matters when you compare the number with your own trash can. The 4.9-pound figure is total national MSW divided by total population, so it includes your share of what the coffee shop, the hospital and the grocery store throw out. A household that recycles and composts heavily may put far less than that at the curb.
MSW also leaves out several big waste streams that can still end up in a landfill: construction and demolition debris, municipal wastewater sludge, nonhazardous industrial process waste and hazardous waste. Those are tracked separately.
How it has changed since 1960
Per-person trash has climbed for most of the past six decades, with a few dips. The EPA’s figures, in pounds per person per day:
- 1960: 2.68
- 1980: 3.66
- 2000: 4.74
- 2017: 4.51
- 2018: 4.91
EPA’s 2018 fact sheet says the per-person rate has risen about 80 percent since 1960. The jump from 2017 to 2018 needs an asterisk, though. EPA says it came mainly from a change in how it measures wasted food, which now counts more of the routes food takes, such as animal feed, anaerobic digestion, donation and sewer disposal. So the 2018 number is not directly comparable with earlier years. The fact sheet also notes that consumer spending has grown faster than trash, meaning Americans now throw away less per dollar spent than they used to.
EPA notes that this data series runs only through 2018, which is why that year is still the reference point for national per-person numbers.
What the trash is made of
By weight, four materials made up most of 2018’s MSW, per EPA:
- Paper and paperboard: 23.1 percent, about 67.4 million tons. Paper tonnage has fallen since 2000, largely because news and office paperwork have gone digital.
- Food: 21.6 percent, about 63.1 million tons.
- Plastics: 12.2 percent, about 35.7 million tons, up from 8.2 percent of the total in 1990.
- Yard trimmings: 12.1 percent, about 35.4 million tons, down from 16.8 percent in 1990 as many states discouraged landfilling yard waste.
Selected consumer electronics, such as TVs, computers and phones, came to about 2.7 million tons, under 1 percent of the total.
Where it all goes
Here is how EPA says the 292.4 million tons were handled in 2018, with the per-person daily share from its tables:
- Landfilled: about 146 million tons, 50 percent of the total, or about 2.4 pounds per person per day. Food was the largest single material going into landfills at about 24 percent, followed by plastics at over 18 percent.
- Recycled: about 69 million tons, roughly 1.2 pounds per person per day. Paper and paperboard made up about two-thirds of it, and corrugated boxes alone were 32.1 million tons.
- Composted: about 25 million tons, roughly 0.4 pounds per person per day, mostly yard trimmings.
- Burned with energy recovery: about 34.6 million tons, 11.8 percent, roughly 0.6 pounds per person per day.
- Other food management: about 17.7 million tons of food, roughly 0.3 pounds per person per day.
Recycling and composting together came to 32.1 percent in 2018. That is down from 35 percent in 2017, even though 2018 set a record for total tons recycled in EPA’s series.
The landfill share has fallen a long way: EPA says landfilling took 94 percent of generated MSW in 1960 and 50 percent in 2018. Curious what happens to that half? See what a sanitary landfill is and how long trash takes to decompose in a landfill. For the recycling side, what a materials recovery facility does explains how curbside bins get sorted, and waste-to-energy plants covers the burned share.
The trash that is not counted: C&D debris
Construction and demolition debris dwarfs household trash, but it sits outside the per-person MSW number. EPA estimates that 2018 produced 600 million tons of C&D debris, about twice the MSW total. Concrete made up 67.5 percent and asphalt pavement 17.8 percent, and demolition, not new construction, produced more than 90 percent of it. A lot of that concrete and asphalt can be crushed for use as aggregate or in new asphalt mix, which EPA counts as a “next use.” If you are tearing out a project of your own, our guide on how to dispose of construction debris covers where it can go.
How to throw away less
The biggest slices of the trash pile point to the easiest wins:
- Food: plan meals, use leftovers and compost scraps where you can. Food is the largest material going to landfills, so it is the one to target first.
- Paper and cardboard: break down boxes and keep them dry and in the recycling bin. Cardboard is already the most-recycled item by weight.
- Yard waste: leave grass clippings on the lawn or use your county’s yard waste or compost drop-off instead of the trash.
- Bulky and special items: appliances, electronics, tires, paint and batteries often have their own drop-off programs. Look over what you can take to the dump and the household hazardous waste guide before a dump run.
When you do need to haul a load yourself, find the closest landfill, transfer station or recycling drop-off on the Dumpmapper map or with dump near me, and call ahead to confirm hours and what the site accepts.
Trash per person FAQ
How much trash does the average person produce per day?
About 4.9 pounds in the United States, according to EPA's most recent national data for 2018. That figure includes a share of trash from businesses and institutions, not just homes.
How much trash does the average person produce in a year?
At 4.9 pounds a day, that is roughly 1,790 pounds a year, or about 0.9 tons per person. About half of it was landfilled in 2018.
How much trash does the average person produce in a week?
About 34 pounds a week at EPA's 2018 rate of 4.9 pounds per person per day.
How much trash does the U.S. produce each year?
EPA counted 292.4 million tons of municipal solid waste in 2018. Construction and demolition debris, which is tracked separately, added about 600 million tons.
What makes up most household trash?
By weight, paper and paperboard (23.1 percent), food (21.6 percent), plastics (12.2 percent) and yard trimmings (12.1 percent) were the largest parts of 2018 municipal waste, per EPA.
Why is the 2018 number higher than 2017?
EPA says the rise from 4.5 to 4.9 pounds a person each day came mainly from a new method that counts more of the ways wasted food is handled, not from a sudden rise in trash.
The bottom line
The average person in the United States produces about 4.9 pounds of trash a day by EPA’s count, which is about 34 pounds a week and close to 1,800 pounds a year. That average includes a share of business and institutional trash, not just what goes in a home bin. About half of it ends up in landfills, and food, paper, plastics and yard waste make up most of the pile, which is where cutting back makes the biggest difference.