Food for thought

So our little composting initiative includes 13 households and on average these 13 households donate 100lbs of kitchen scraps each week.  This works out as 7.69lbs of waste diverted from landfill per household per week.  We have a big range in our households, with some donating close to 0lbs and others donating as much as 35lbs per week.  This range is probably representative of American households in general.  If the existing 123.6 million American households kept their food scraps out of landfill this would see a weekly amount of 475,240 tons being kept out of landfill - or 24.72 million tons a year - the equivalent weight of 68 Empire State Buildings a year!