Waste Statistics
From Green Garage Detroit
Contents
Measurement Decisions
- Unit of measure = pounds per week
- Per person is the number of people that are in the Businesses in Residence and regular volunteers
- Industry standards for waste per person/per month were taken from: NYC Mayor's Office on Environmental Coordination (Chapter 14)
Sources of Waste
- offices
- kitchen
- bathrooms
- our Friday community lunch
Waste Destinations
- Garbage goes out on Fridays. It is picked up by the City of Detroit Department of Public Services.
- Recycled material (paper, cardboard, styrofoam, glass, metal and plastics) goes to our waste/recycling station just at the edge of the green alley, next to Motor City Brewing Works. It is picked up weekly by Recycle Here.
- Compost goes to 2 locations: Palmer Park, where we mix it with spent brewing grains from Motor City Brewing Works and horse manure; and some to our worms, located in the greenhouse. We compost approximately 5 pounds of food scraps per day, 25 per week.
Waste Measurement Charts
- Keep in mind that the numbers of people in the building have been slowly increasing over the year, from 15 in January of 2012 to 69 in April of 2013.
- Looks like we'll need to do another trash audit.
- Overall numbers are heading downward as the number of people in the building increases (from 15 in Jan of 2012 to 69 in April of 2013).
- This chart compares our waste output with an industry standard for office space of 13 pounds of waste per person per week, or about 56 pounds of waste per person per month. As the number of people in the building has risen throughout the year, our waste numbers have remained surprisingly constant. The hypothetical 'industry standard' red line shows how these numbers might have looked if we were a typical office building growing at the rate we did over the last year.
- In February 2013, we had 69 people in the building and 42 lbs of waste. For 69 people, the industry standard for waste would equate to 3,857 lbs per month.
Past Waste Measurement Charts
- Monthly waste amounts.png
Monthly waste statistics, Feb 2012 - Feb 2013
See Also
For more detail, visit our As Built pages, detailing the work in these areas: