Question 1.26

1.26 Garbage is big business.

The formal name for garbage is “municipal solid waste.” In the United States, approximately 250 million tons of garbage are generated in a year. Following is a breakdown of the materials that made up American municipal solid waste in 2012.11

garbage

Material Weight (million tons) Percent of total
Food scraps 36.4 14.5
Glass 11.6 4.6
Metals 22.4 8.9
Paper, paperboard 68.6 27.4
Plastics 31.7 12.7
Rubber, leather 7.5 3.0
Textiles 14.3 5.7
Wood 15.8 6.3
Yard trimmings 34.0 13.5
Other 8.5 3.4
Total 250.9 100.0
  1. Add the weights. The sum is not exactly equal to the value of 250.9 million tons given in the table. Why?
  2. Make a bar graph of the percents. The graph gives a clearer picture of the main contributors to garbage if you order the bars from tallest to shortest.
  3. Also make a pie chart of the percents. Comparing the two graphs, notice that it is easier to see the small differences among “Food scraps,” “Plastics,” and ”Yard trimmings” in the bar graph.