Highlights from the EPA's Annual MSW Report

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its annual report on municipal solid waste generation earlier this week. Here Waste360 takes a look at some of the key charts and tables from the report.

According to the report, The U.S. recycling rate fell 0.2 percent in 2012 from the previous year. The rate slipped to 34.5 percent compared with 34.7 percent in 2011, according to the Washington-based agency’s annual study.

Americans generated about 251 million tons of waste and recycled and composted nearly 87 million tons. In 2011 the recycling volume was the same and generation was about 250 million tons.

In 2012 Americans generated 4.38 pounds of waste per day and recycled and composted about 1.51 pounds.

More than 65 million tons was recycled and more than 21 million composted. Combusting waste for energy amounted to 29 million tons.