The Garbage Project - Submitted Data
| School | City, State/Provence | Country | Grade | Subject | Number of Students | Avg. Number of Trash Bags | Avg. Number of Bags Recycled | What Was Recycled? |
| Kherad School | Tehran | Iran | 11 year old students | Science | 20 | 8 | 7 | paper (70%), plastic bottles (30%) |
| SMP Negeri 1 Gunungsitoli | Gunungsitoli, Nias Islang | Indonesia | 7th grade | Solid Waste Management | 10 | 6 | 1/2 box | glass and plastic bottles |
| Knollwood Park Public School | London, Ontario | Canada | 8th grade | all except music, art, French | 29 | 4 | 2 | pop cans, bottles, cardboard, paper |
| Average: | 6 bags per household | 3.2 bags per household |
Something to consider: If the average household produces 3.2 bags of garbage (approximately 29 lbs/13 kg) in one week, what do you think is the total weight of garbage that is produced by your entire school each week? How much do you think is produced by your entire city/town? I live in Knoxville, Tennessee, a city with approximately 76,650 households. This means that my city alone produces about 2,222,850 lbs/ 996,450 kg of garbage each week!!
Interesting fact: From late Spring throughout the Summer, the city of Knoxville sponsors a free weekly event called Sundown in the City that attracts thousands of people to Knoxville's center city. This year, it has been designated as a zero waste event in which all waste items on site will be composted or recycled. The goal is to send absolutely nothing to the landfill at the end of every Thursday night! Last week was the first event, and there was 7,000 pounds of waste produced, 2,200 recycled, 4,800 pounds to the landfill and nothing composted. You can read more about these efforts on the Keep Knoxville Beautiful blog.
Last Updated April 16, 2007