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From 1960 to 2001, the average
pounds of waste per person per day, practically doubled. It went from 2.7 to
4.4 pounds per person per day, with residents, institutions, and businesses of the U.S. producing more than 229 million tons
of MSW.
The MSW industry has four components: recycling, composting, landfilling,
and waste-to-energy via incineration. Municipal solid waste is total waste excluding industrial waste, agricultural
waste, and sewage sludge. As defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it includes durable goods, non-durable
goods, containers and packaging, food wastes, yard wastes, and miscellaneous inorganic wastes from residential, commercial,
institutional, and industrial sources.
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