Determine the mass of the trash. As mentioned before, the amount of trash generated in the U.S. is about 190 million tons per year. We should be up to our necks in it by now. The key to staying on top of it all is recycling by people and by nature. In recent years, people have begun to recycle glass, metal, and plastic that fill up nearly a quarter of America's landfills.
Nature recycles all the time.
Natural recycling, or decomposition, is actually an essential process for many living things. Nature's recyclers are bacteria and fungi, which break down plant and animal wastes to make nutrients available for other living things. Even the plants that we depend on need nutrients from the soil. Most of these nutrients are provided when dead organic material is broken down. For example, a plant needs nitrogen compounds that may come from a decaying carcass.