Report: Trash not a throw-away problem for NC, US

A new report looks through America’s trash – and the results aren’t pretty.

Trash in America analyzes the contents of the country’s more than 260 million tons of waste. That includes waste from North Carolina, which sent 11.5 million tons of trash to landfills in 2022.

Emily Mason, an advocate with the Environment North Carolina Research and Policy Center, said that number has stayed relatively consistent since the pandemic. She discussed the largest component of America’s trash.

“Twenty-eight percent of all U.S. garbage consists of packaging,” said Mason. “So, less than half of all plastic packaging in the market is actually recyclable in the first place, and then only a tiny fraction of that actually gets recycled, is what we found.”

Mason noted that a fifth of our trash is food waste. Electronic waste is also growing issue, with 7 million tons discarded each year.

According to the report, 62% of waste in the U.S. ends up in the landfill or incinerated. Twenty-four percent is recycled.

Mason said North Carolina could enact policies to reduce waste. She said one policy is extended producer responsibility, which has been enacted in 35 states.

“These laws shift responsibility for the cost of recycling away from the taxpayer and on to the companies that produce them,” said Mason, “and this provides an incentive for companies to make products with the entire lifecycle of their product in mind.”

Many cities and towns have also banned plastic bags, and Mason says these laws have been shown to work well.

“Unfortunately, in North Carolina, municipalities are actually not allowed to restrict or ban plastic bags,” said Mason. “So lifting this restriction to allow towns to manage plastic waste issues through policy would be a really great first step.”

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