Composting statistics show two different U.S. waste stories: yard-trimmings composting expanded substantially after 1990, while food generation rose sharply and food composting remained much smaller. EPA’s series below reports municipal solid waste estimates in thousands of U.S. tons. Residential collection figures describe access, not participation or the tonnage actually composted.
Contents
- Yard trimmings generation
- Yard trimmings composting
- Yard trimmings disposal pathways
- Food waste generation
- Food waste composting
- Residential food-scrap collection access
Yard trimmings generation
Yard trimmings were already a major component of U.S. municipal solid waste in 1960. The EPA’s Yard Trimmings: Material-Specific Data series estimated 20,000 thousand tons that year. The estimate increased to 23,200 thousand tons in 1970 and 27,500 thousand tons in 1980.
The series reached 35,000 thousand tons in 1990, its highest listed value through that point. It then fell to 30,530 thousand tons in 2000 before rising again: 32,070 thousand tons in 2005, 33,400 thousand tons in 2010, and 34,720 thousand tons in 2015. These are national estimates, not measurements of one city, household type, or backyard composting program.
| Year | Yard trimmings in municipal solid waste (thousand U.S. tons) |
|---|---|
| 1960 | 20,000 |
| 1970 | 23,200 |
| 1980 | 27,500 |
| 1990 | 35,000 |
| 2000 | 30,530 |
| 2005 | 32,070 |
| 2010 | 33,400 |
| 2015 | 34,720 |
The latest yard-trimmings generation value supplied in this series is for 2015. It should not be extended to later years without a later EPA estimate. In particular, the 2017 and 2018 values below describe composting and disposal pathways; they do not supply new generation totals in the provided series.
Yard trimmings composting
EPA recorded 4,200 thousand tons of yard trimmings composted in 1990. The amount increased to 15,770 thousand tons in 2000 and 19,860 thousand tons in 2005. It was 19,200 thousand tons in 2010 and 21,290 thousand tons in 2015.
The later observations were 24,420 thousand tons in 2017 and 22,300 thousand tons in 2018. Those figures describe the reported amount composted in each year; they are not a forecast. The movement between 2017 and 2018 is a decline in the reported tonnage, even though both values are above the 2015 figure.
EPA’s national composting figures exclude backyard composting where the source says so. That limitation matters for interpreting the series: the reported totals describe the source’s accounting of municipal solid waste management and do not represent every compost pile maintained by households or gardens.
The EPA yard-trimmings data also uses a dash where data were unavailable. Missing source years should not be treated as zero tons composted.
Yard trimmings disposal pathways
Landfill disposal was the dominant listed pathway in the earlier yard-trimmings observations. Landfills received 20,000 thousand tons in 1960, 23,110 thousand tons in 1970, and 26,950 thousand tons in 1980. In 1990, the landfill estimate was 25,560 thousand tons.
The later landfill figures were lower than the earlier peak: 11,900 thousand tons in 2000, 9,990 thousand tons in 2005, 11,690 thousand tons in 2010, and 10,800 thousand tons in 2015. EPA reported 8,650 thousand tons sent to landfills in 2017 and 10,530 thousand tons in 2018.
Combustion with energy recovery was another reported pathway. EPA recorded 90 thousand tons in 1970 and 550 thousand tons in 1980. The value rose to 5,240 thousand tons in 1990, then fell to 2,860 thousand tons in 2000 and 2,220 thousand tons in 2005. It was 2,510 thousand tons in 2010, 2,630 thousand tons in 2015, and 2,570 thousand tons in 2018.
| Year | Landfills | Combusted with energy recovery |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 25,560 | 5,240 |
| 2000 | 11,900 | 2,860 |
| 2005 | 9,990 | 2,220 |
| 2010 | 11,690 | 2,510 |
| 2015 | 10,800 | 2,630 |
| 2018 | 10,530 | 2,570 |
All figures in this table are thousand U.S. tons. The pathways should be read as separate reported categories from the EPA source, rather than as a complete household-level accounting of what every yard generates.
Food waste generation
Food in U.S. municipal solid waste was estimated at 12,200 thousand tons in 1960. The figure was 12,800 thousand tons in 1970 and 13,000 thousand tons in 1980. It then rose to 23,860 thousand tons in 1990 and 30,700 thousand tons in 2000.
EPA’s Food: Material-Specific Data reports 32,930 thousand tons in 2005, 35,740 thousand tons in 2010, and 39,730 thousand tons in 2015. The series lists 40,670 thousand tons in 2017, 63,130 thousand tons in 2018, and 66,220 thousand tons in 2019.
The source notes that 2018 was the first year using a new methodology. Therefore, the level shift from 2017 to 2018 should not be read as a pure trend in food generation. The 2018 and 2019 values remain useful as estimates from the newer methodology, but they are not directly comparable with earlier years in the same way as observations produced under one unchanged method.
That methodological note is especially important when reading a long time series. The estimates before 2018 still show the earlier reported pattern, including the increase from 13,000 thousand tons in 1980 to 39,730 thousand tons in 2015. The later observations add information from a revised approach, but they should be kept distinct from the earlier estimates when describing change. The figures also refer to food in municipal solid waste, so they are not a complete measure of food produced, purchased, eaten, donated, or diverted before entering the waste stream.
Food waste composting
Food composting was 680 thousand tons in 2000, according to EPA. The amount was 690 thousand tons in 2005 and 970 thousand tons in 2010. EPA recorded 2,100 thousand tons in 2015, 2,570 thousand tons in 2017, 2,590 thousand tons in 2018, and 3,300 thousand tons in 2019.
The reported food-composting amount therefore remained below 1,000 thousand tons in the 2000, 2005, and 2010 observations, then exceeded 2,000 thousand tons in 2015 and 2,500 thousand tons in 2017. Because the food generation series changed methodology beginning in 2018, comparisons involving 2018 and 2019 should retain that qualification.
EPA’s national composting figures exclude backyard composting where the source says so. These food-composting values consequently do not measure every household practice. They also do not show how many individual households composted, how much material a particular garden received, or how much finished compost was produced.
Residential food-scrap collection access
Collection infrastructure provides a different measure from tonnage. The EPA’s Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2018 Tables and Figures includes a residential food-scrap collection table for 2017, identified there as the most recent data available as of July 2020.
The table reported curbside access for 6,083,678 U.S. households, equal to 4.82% of U.S. households. Drop-off programs covered 6,701,927 households, equal to 5.31%. These percentages describe access to a collection program, not participation, the frequency of use, the quantity collected, or the quantity ultimately composted.
The two access categories should also be kept separate when interpreting coverage. Curbside service generally identifies a collection option associated with a residence, while drop-off access identifies a place or program residents could use; the supplied EPA figures do not provide equivalent participation counts for either category. A household can have access without using the service, and access figures alone cannot show whether collected scraps were accepted consistently, contaminated, or processed into finished compost.
Selected state figures from the same latest-2017 table were:
| State | Service type | Households with access |
|---|---|---|
| California | Curbside | 2,752,008 |
| New York | Drop-off | 3,159,035 |
| Minnesota | Drop-off | 1,087,016 |
| Colorado | Drop-off | 601,295 |
The California figure is for curbside access; the New York, Minnesota, and Colorado figures are for drop-off access. The table’s reporting date is 2017, although EPA reproduced it in the 2018 tables PDF and identified it as current through July 2020. It should therefore be described as a 2017 access snapshot reported in 2020, not as a current national participation rate.
Taken together, these access figures show that residential food-scrap collection was available to a minority of U.S. households in the reported snapshot. They cannot establish how many residents used those services or connect access directly to the national food-composting tonnage, because the measures cover different concepts and the national tonnage series has its own scope limitations.