The disposal of furniture is a global issue. And it’s not just about the waste of resources, but also about the amount of time and energy that goes into the production of these items.
It is estimated that over 50% of furniture ends up in landfill. This number is even higher for mattresses, which are estimated to be at 90%.
How much furniture ends up in landfill each year?
Each year, Americans throw out more than 12 million tons of furniture and furnishings, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Only a small percentage is recycled, thanks to the diversity of materials in most items—upholstered furniture and mattresses are particularly hard to clean and reprocess.[1]
What ends up most in landfills?
According to the US EPA, the material most frequently encountered in MSW landfills is plain old paper, it sometimes accounts for more than 40 percent of a landfill’s contents. Newspapers alone can take up as much as 13 percent of the space in US landfills.[2]
How much stuff ends up in landfills?
Every year, U.S. landfills are filled with 139.6 million tons of waste, including: 30.63 million tons of food. 26.82 million tons of plastic. 18.35 million tons of paper and paperboard.[3]
How much furniture ends up in landfill Australia?
Additionally, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that businesses and households throw away more than 20 million tonnes of furniture waste annually – contributing to the 75.8 million tonnes of total solid waste stated earlier.[4]
What percentage of waste is furniture?
The EPA estimates that 9 million tons of furniture are tossed every single year. That’s roughly 5% of everything brought to landfills (a sizable chunk, especially when you consider the amount of food waste and packaging materials thrown away). Not only is it wasteful, but it’s also not a good investment.[5]
Is furniture bad for the environment?
Furniture is one of the fastest-growing landfill categories. In 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found furniture accounted for more than 12 million tons of municipal waste in the United States. F-waste, as it’s not so affectionately dubbed, constitutes the second largest portion of urban waste.[6]
What is the number 1 item found in landfills?
What is the Most Typical Material Encountered in Landfills in the United States? According to The World Counts, “paper accounts for around 26% of total waste at landfills“. The most common item found in MSW landfills is plain old paper. Newspapers alone can occupy up to 13% of landfill space in the United States.[7]
What is the number one item in landfills?
In fact, food is the single largest component taking up space inside US landfills,6 making up 22 percent of municipal solid waste (MSW).[8]
What is the most thrown away item?
Clothes. The average American will throw away about 90 pounds of clothing this year, and 85 percent of that will end up in landfills, according to Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART), an association for the used clothing and fiber industries.[9]
Are we running out of landfill space?
The Problem of Waste Disposal That’s not the only issue caused by the improper disposal of e-waste, though. There’s another big problem, one that’s only getting bigger every day. Simply put, we’re running out of space in landfills.[10]
How close is too close to a landfill?
Relevant standards of municipal solid waste landfills (MSWLs) require MSWL and hazardous waste landfills to maintain an isolation distance of 500 and 800 m from the surrounding residents and water bodies.[11]
Does Australian recycling end up in landfill?
13. 81% of Australia’s used plastic is sent straight to landfills. In 2019, 84% (2.94 million tonnes) of plastic waste in Australia was dumped in landfills. A staggeringly low figure of just 12% of plastic used by the Australian public is actually recycled.[12]