The United States is a consumer consumption country, and our economy depends upon consumers buying products. The byproduct of consumption is consumer trash and waste, and those materials find their way into the municipal solid waste system. This is true of businesses, governments, individuals and households. We discard a lot of trash.

According to statistics maintained by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Americans produce approximately 4.5 pounds of MSW each day (2003 statistics). For America as a whole, the EPA estimates that 236 million tons of MSW is created each day. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported that for the year 2005, 8,437,712 tons of solid waste were deposited in the state's landfills. It is important to note that the Colorado figures are for total waste and not just municipal solid waste. The CDPHE has information for using formulas to convert its data to allow for comparisons with the EPA data system.

The following table prepared from the EPA data demonstrates the percentage composition of the materials in the MSW, and there is no reason to think that Colorado would differ significantly from the national percentages:

Material	Percentage of Total MSW
Paper	35.2%
Yard Trimmings	12.1%
Food Scraps	11.7%
Plastics	11.3%
Metals	8.0%
Rubber, Leather, and Textiles	7.4%
Glass	5.3%
Wood	5.8%
Other	3.4%

As part of our survey, we asked the municipalities what materials they include in their curbside recycling programs. That information is displayed in the accompanying tables. However, it is clear that most of the materials noted above are not only subject to diversion from the municipal waste stream through recycling but there is also an extensive array of such recycling programs already operational throughout Colorado.