Waste Statistics

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Revision as of 17:36, 2 May 2019 by MarthaPeterson (Talk | contribs) (Monthly Waste Comparison to Industry Standard)

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return to Measurement Pages

Measurement Decisions

The trash audit group in June of 2013.
  • 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)
Average NY Office Space Waste Amounts from NYC CEQR Technical Manual



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) 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

In January 2019, there were 115 people in the building.


Monthly Waste in pounds, Jan 2018 - Jan 2019




Monthly waste statistics per person, Jan 2018 - Jan 2019




Monthly waste comparison, Green Garage vs industry standard for Jan 2019

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.




Monthly waste cost per person, Jan 2018 - Jan 2019




2017 Measurement Charts

Monthly Waste (in pounds)

Monthly Waste per Person (in pounds)

Monthly Waste Comparison to Industry Standard

Monthly Waste Cost per Person

See Also

For more detail, visit our As Built pages, detailing the work in these areas:

For past years' charts, see Monthly Waste Archives