How much trash do you make a day? Think about it. Maybe you eat a protein bar, grab a bottle of water, or make a cup of tea every morning before you leave the house. Do you use plastic utensils during lunch?  As you are bringing your dinner home in a plastic bag, are you greeted by a box waiting outside your door? This culture is singular to America: not one country produces as much trash as the U.S. In fact, the EPA reported that if each person produced as much trash as the average American did, we would need four Earths to hold all of the trash.

Many people believe America’s neglect is due to the weekly trash trucks, making garbage disappear from our pristine homes. We don’t see the garbage anymore, so we figure the trash to no longer be our problem. Right?

The accumulation of trash in landfills produces toxic gases like ammonia and sulfides, in addition to methane gas and carbon dioxide, contributing to our Earth’s infamous greenhouse effect. We are not only destroying our environment, but we are imposing detrimental health risks to the most vulnerable people on our planet, as landfills are only built in poor communities.

Think about this: there is a finite amount of surface on the Earth. We, as humans, are burying chemical, non-degradable materials down into the ground – the place where we get 50% of our water supply. Additionally, we are taking steps to destroy one of the most beautiful, diverse, and unexplored ecosystems on our planet: the ocean. Why do we still believe there is a need to package everything in plastic containers? Why do printed receipts still exist? Do you really need your new clothes wrapped in tissue paper?