Background Reducing waste in San Mateo County is an important issue. San Mateo County has two active landfills. If we divided the pounds of solid waste by the population of San Mateo County, San Mateo county residents have thrown out over 2,532.60 lbs of solid waste per year. This is approximately 6.94 lbs per resident per day. Studies have been done to analyze both the contents of the national waste stream and the waste stream of schools.
Paper makes up the largest component of schools' waste streams.
Each American throws out about three to four pounds of waste per day. Each student produces about half a pound of waste per school day. Labeled garbage cans or containers for each classroom or area. A scale for weighing the materials in pounds. A. Find out if parents and your school administrators will allow the waste audits.