1. Plan your project. Choose the number of weeks you’ll run the project. The bare minimum of 2 weeks allows participants to get initial data and try a change. Four weeks or more is best for seeing trends and testing changes over time.

2. Inspire participants. Help them know why this project is important. You could launch the project by sharing (or asking participants to find and share) some basic facts about the volume of household trash we generate, where it goes, and the environmental impacts of a throw-away culture. See the Facts to Share section below.

3. Launch your team. Send each participant home with the two-page WasteWatchers Trash Tracking Guide. This sheet includes:

• Steps for participants to follow;
• A table where participants log each full trash bag’s weight and the total trash weight for the week;
• A chart where participants plot their weekly progress.

4. Share and track progress. As the weeks pass, the team can share information on their progress and ideas for reducing trash. It can be fun to track the group’s total trash weight over time. You might want to create a shared, online spreadsheet where participants record their weekly totals. You could celebrate successes, including greatest weekly reductions and the least trash per person (considering how many are in the household).

5. Give us feedback! Please share how your project went, what worked and what was challenging, and any ideas to make it better.

In 2018 we generated a daily average of 4.9 pounds of waste per person. About one-third was recycled or composted. The rest went to landfills (50%) and incinerators (12%), both of which have significant environmental downsides.*¹

Landfills are the third largest source of human-caused methane emissions. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and a leading cause of climate change. It is generated in landfills when bacteria break down certain types of waste.¹

Incinerators that burn trash can generate energy for powering our homes, but they also produce emissions that contribute to smog, climate change, and human health problems ranging from asthma and heart disease to brain and nervous system impacts during pregnancy – especially older incinerators.¹

Plastic waste is a growing problem. The plastic recycling rate is dropping as the amount of plastic we throw away soars. For most plastics, no market exists for recycled material. The plastic recycling rate in the U.S. fell from 8.7% in 2018 to 5-6% in 2021.^{1, 2}

Food is the top component of our waste, making up one-fifth of it on average. We throw away more food than any other country, collectively tossing 30-40 percent of the entire U.S. food supply. This creates greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 42 coal-fired power plants, according to U.S. EPA.^{3, 4}

Recycling, composting, and taking action to reduce food waste away can significantly reduce the amount of trash a household throws away and are an important part of the solution.⁵

*This statistic reflects all “municipal waste,” which includes household and commercial trash. It doesn’t consider other major categories of waste, including hazardous, nuclear, industrial, medical, and other specialized waste that requires unique treatment or handling.

What is in household trash and how much does each person generate? Source: University of Michigan Center for Sustainable Systems.

Eight ways to reduce waste. Source: The Nature Conservancy.

How to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Natural Resources Defense Council

In-depth summary of national trends – Facts and Figures on Materials, Wastes and Recycling. Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

How to cook in ways that reduce food waste – Cookbooks include this well-rated Amazon pick and books featured in New York Time’s 2023 review.