Thanksgiving weekend, Americans chased down hot deals on
merchandise at local and online retail stores. Busy shoppers
walked away with armfuls of bags and boxes full of gifts and
holiday trimmings. Between now and New Year's Day, people will
start discarding the leftovers: heaps of wrapping paper, stacks
of cardboard boxes, piles of Styrofoam inserts, and multi-
colored clumps of ribbons and bows. Most often, the garbage bags
full of holiday trash are taken to the curb for disposal. The
trash gets collected, and then is dumped into the local
landfill. On average, every American generates about 4.4 pounds
of waste every day—that's nearly one ton every year! However,
not all of this trash needs to be wasted. Instead, much of the
waste stream can be reused or recycled. year, more and more
people are choosing to recycle. In some states, household
recycling started out by adding a deposit of 5 cents or more for
drinks in bottles and cans to encourage residents to return them
for reusing or recycling. In 1990, the a