LANDFILL MACROECONOMICS AND INDUSTRY TRENDS

摘要

The last time a survey was done (2003), the US EPA determined that the average American threw away an average of 4.5 pounds of municipal solid waste every day. Since America's population is projected to reach 300 million this year, this comes to approximately 675 thousand tons per day generated by American residents, individuals, businesses and institutions. The big surprise of this survey was that this per capita disposal rate had remained unchanged for over a decade after years of steady increases running parallel with increases in real personal wealth. After increasing steadily since the surveys began, this per capita average has not changed since 1990 due to more efficient packaging, manufacturing and construction methods. These source reduction efforts (longer lasting and more durable goods, products and packaging that have been redesigned to use less materials, etc.) have been the single most important change affecting the landfill and waste management industry. Without them, the per capita rate of waste generation would have continued at its previous pace and per capita waste generation would be equal to or higher than 5 pounds per day.