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Calculate Your Waste How much waste does your household generate?

• Calculate your Waste
• Where does it all go?
• Cascade Recycling Center Slide Show

Calculate your Waste

In 2005, it was estimated that the average King County resident generates 17 pounds of garbage per week. How much waste does your household generate? The answer might surprise you.

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Think you generate more or less?

Why not do an experiment? Weigh your family's garbage bags on a scale for two weeks, then figure out a weekly and yearly generation average through this exercise from Earth Day Canada's EcoKids Web site (PDF, external).

Seems like a lot?

Find out what you can do to make sure our resources aren't wasted.

How do we compare to the rest of the nation?

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, in 2003 total U.S. waste generation was 236 million tons, or about 4.5 pounds per person per day and about 31.5 pounds per person per week. King County's average is much lower than the national average because King County residents already do a lot of great recycling.

What's the impact of your purchasing decisions?

Visit the EcoConsumer Waste Calculator to find out. Enter your personal or household data and select either King County or Washington state. Then click the "calculate" button and watch what happens county or state-wide.

What happens to my recyclables?

Materials collected for recycling in King County become new products, many of them manufactured locally. This 10-minute video shows how the recycling loop works: from collection to remanufacture to new product.

Cascade Recycling Center Slide Show

Most of King County´s recyclables go to the Cascade Recycling Center in Woodinville, Washington, where they are separated, baled and shipped to various re-manufacturers to be made into new products

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